A blatantly false anti-renewable advertisement funded by the right wing ginger group Advance has been pulled from a billboard near Newcastle, but environmental activists are calling for tighter rules governing “out of home” advertising in Australia.
The advertisement that was removed, titled “Renewables cost the earth” and including the words “dollars and destruction” had attracted attention from advertising industry executives and activist groups in a series of LinkedIn posts, prompting the billboard owner oOH!Media to announce that it was being removed.
Mike Spirkovski, a former chief creative officer with Saatchi and Saatchi Australian and now head of Rethink Everything, says he was shocked and “taken aback” by the advertising, particularly given its location on a cleared construction site, and in the heart of the coal industry.
“This billboard, which criticises the environmental impact of renewables, stands in the middle of a massive construction site spanning floodplains and farmlands in Tarro, NSW, near the old Oak factory at Hexham,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“This is part of the M1 freeway extension, a project that has required extensive land clearing. The irony is hard to miss.
“Adding to that irony, this site is not far from the Hunter Valley, one of NSW’s major coal mining regions. Large-scale open-cut coal mining in places like Singleton, Muswellbrook, and the Upper Hunter has significantly impacted farmland and local ecosystems.”
His post drew support from a number of other activists and professionals, and directed their astonishment at the Out of Home media company oOH.
“My question to oOH is ‘why are you accepting this’?” wrote james Greet, the co-founder of the Payback Project.
” As a founding member of Ad Net Zero you’ll know that reducing emissions through cleaner energy usage is an essential pillar of climate action, and renewables are central to this.
“The mandatory reporting you’ve undertaken tells you exactly the threats to your own business of a planet that goes beyond +1.5c. So why would you be party to this misinformation?”
Within a few hours it prompted this response from oOH.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. oOh!media provides an open advertising platform that upholds free speech and complies with content standards and regulations set out by advertising guidelines.
While we have robust procedures in place to review sensitive advertising content, following an additional internal review and given our business’ strong commitment to sustainability and reducing our operational impact on the planet, oOh! has now removed this advertisement.”
Advance – formerly known as Advance Australia – was created in 2018 and attacks net zero policies, the climate “hoax” and other left wing causes. It is accused of having strong links to the Liberal Party and is suspected of sourcing much of its funding from the fossil fuel industry.
Belinda Noble, the founder and president of Comms Declare, says the issue highlights the fact that misleading third party political advertising usually slips through legal loopholes, and a Senate inquiry looking at claims made by the fossil fuel industry, including coal, gas and oil companies, is yet to make recommendations.
“It shouldn’t be left up to billboard owners to decide what is true and what isn’t,” Noble told Renew Economy. “This leaves media companies in the difficult position of having to vet content in an increasingly politically charged environment.”
Comms Declare is pushing for a tobacco-style ban on all fossil fuel advertising in recognition of its health and climate impacts. Noble says 18 Australian jurisdictions, including the ACT and City of Sydney, have already restricted fossil fuel promotions on their property.
