On Friday 23 November, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced a ban on adverts for junk food on London's transport network. Posters for food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar will disappear from the Underground, Overground, buses and bus shelters. But just how effective is advertising? That was the topic of this debate at the Battle of Ideas 2018 festival, produced in partnership with Diageo. (More details here.)
INTRODUCTION
Advertising has become a familiar target of hostile campaigners. Public health campaigners and quangos want bans or restrictions on adverts for foods and drinks that are high in sugar, salt or fat. Campaigns around alcohol, gambling and ‘payday’ loans demand bans on the promotion of these activities. Others seek to suppress adverts featuring models who are excessively thin – or, indeed, models who are overweight. Why are all these campaigners so convinced by the manipulative power of advertising? What is the evidence that advertising can control behaviour? Can it really do any more than influence consumers to choose one brand over another?
SPEAKERS
DR SHIRLEY DENT
communications specialist and PR lecturer; co-author, Radical Blake
CARL MILLER
research director, Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, Demos; author, The Death of the Gods: the new global power grab
CHRISTOPHER SNOWDON
head of lifestyle economics, Institute of Economic Affairs; editor, Nanny State Index; author, Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism
STEVE SODEN
director, Best Interests Ltd
#BattleFest2021: How to fight cancel culture and win
#BattleFest2021: Girl, boy, other: how do we talk to kids about gender?
#BattleFest2021: Is it time to rethink the precautionary principle?
#BattleFest2021: Is levelling up really levelling down? The great inequality debate
#BattleFest2021: Racism and how to fight it
#BattleFest2021: The status of science after the pandemic
#BattleFest2021: The Irish border question
#BattleFest2021: Will green jobs save us?
#BattleFest2021: Can our data be used for good? The ethics of research
#BattleFest2021: Protection for me but not for thee? The equality conundrum
#BattleFest2021: Hate, heresy and the fight for free speech
#BattleFest2021: Feminism’s civil war
#BattleFest2021: From profits to prophets - why has big business gone woke?
#BattleFest2021: Is there a case for fossil fuels?
#BattleFest2021: A ’nudge’ too far? The rise of behavioural science and technocratic rule
#BattleFest2021: 20 years in Afghanistan - what happened?
#BattleFest2021: Who are we? Identity in crisis
#EducationForum: Teaching white privilege: making schools less racist or more divided?
#Arts&Society: Truth and politics in the theatre - in conversation with David Ireland
#InternationalSalon: From Covid to climate change: challenging the culture of fear?
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free