Outdoor media giants JCDecaux and Global have been accused of censoring an award-winning poster campaign by Jamie Oliver-backed youth organisation Bite Back, which takes a swipe at the junk food industry.
The posters, which carry the strapline: “We’ve bought this ad space so the junk food giants couldn’t – we’re giving kids a commercial break”, were initially approved by the OOH companies, and were believed to be compliant with the CAP Code.
However, Bite Back says the activity was pulled days before it was due to launch, claiming “the message hit too close to home”.
The group says that with the two OOH giants controlling an estimated 70% of the UK’s outdoor inventory, the decision “makes it near impossible for Bite Back to access outdoor space”.
The move comes just weeks after the campaign was awarded the Best Consumer Campaign by social action charity Sheila McKechnie Foundation.
Set up 2019, and co-founded by the Jamie Oliver Group, Bite Back has run a number of major initiatives, including pushing the previous Conservative Government to U-turn on its decision to not hand out free school meal vouchers during the school holidays in lockdown, as well as being key proponents of the new online junk food advertising ban.
Bite Back interim chief executive Nicki Whiteman said: “It is increasingly clear that there are industry actors who want to silence youth voices and censor kids from sharing their experiences of advertising bombardment.
“These refusals feel less like coincidence and more like an industry that wants to conceal the role it plays in harming children’s health. When our ads are blocked and junk food ads are not, it’s clear who gets the microphone.”
Bite Back wants to see the removal of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) advertising from public spaces and warns that one in three children leave primary school at risk of food related ill health, including type two diabetes and heart disease “in part due to a constant exposure to unhealthy food marketing”.
Neither company has commented on the decision.
Related stories
‘Fatty’ Xmas is saved (for some) in new TV ad ban delay
CAP battered over delay in guidance for junk food ads
Govt chews over rethink of junk food advertising ban
Chubby checker: Industry chews out TfL HFSS ad claims
Industry HFSS ad ban claims wear thin with TfL success
Industry backs junk food ban delay, critics say BOGOF
