Amsterdam has taken a step that’s quite hard to ignore. The city has banned public advertising for meat and fossil fuel products, becoming the first capital in the world to do this. The rule kicked in on May 1, and it covers ads across billboards, tram shelters, and metro stations.
So what’s actually off the table now. Things like burgers, petrol cars, air travel, cruises. Even ads for beef, chicken, pork and fish are no longer allowed. The move ties back to the city’s wider plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and cut local meat consumption by 50 per cent. Leaders here are also pushing the idea that high-carbon lifestyles shouldn’t be seen as aspirational anymore.
The rationale behind the ban
City leaders say this is about aligning public messaging with climate goals. If the city is trying to reduce emissions, it can’t keep promoting products that do the opposite.
Anneke Veenhoff from the GreenLeft Party put it bluntly. “The climate crisis is very urgent. I mean, if you want to be leading in climate policies and you rent out your walls to exactly the opposite, then what are you doing?” she said, as quoted by the BBC.
She also compared it to breaking a habit. “If you’re trying to get rid of an addiction, it’s not very handy to see it everywhere,” Veenhoff said, according to the The New York Times.
Anke Bakker, Amsterdam group leader of a Dutch political party focused on animal rights, backed the move too. She rejected the idea that this is the government acting like a nanny state. Instead, she framed it as pushing back against constant marketing pressure from big companies.
According to Bakker, removing these ads can reduce impulse buying. She also pointed out a broader goal. “Amsterdam is also pushing its citizens to eat less meat, and has set a goal for residents to get 60 per cent of their protein from plant-based sources by 2030. Because of climate reasons, because of health reasons,” she said, as reported by the media outlet.
Experts’ take
Some experts are looking at this from a public health angle as well. Writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Samantha Green called the move “an improvement in health outcomes.” She said, “It’s very clear that fossil fuels kill people through air pollution and climate change,” according to the news outlet.
She added, “Given the previous success of tobacco advertising bans and the previous success of other advertising bans for health-harming products, it only makes sense that we stop allowing the promotion of this deadly product.”
Others see it as a useful test case. Professor Joreintje Mackenbach, an epidemiologist, described it as “a fantastic natural experiment to see”, as quoted by the BBC.
Her point is fairly straightforward. “If we see advertisements for fast food everywhere, it normalises the consumption behaviour of fast consumption. So if we take away those types of cues in our public living environments, then that is also going to have an impact on those social norms,” Mackenbach said.
