Calum Sims, from Adblock Bristol (Image: Adblock Bristol)

"They can shatter your resolve to not have a Big Mac before you’ve even had time to walk all the way past it"

What’s the big deal with digital billboards? Calum Sims, from Adblock Bristol, writes:

You might live near, commute or walk past the two giant digital billboards which stand at the gateway to our city overlooking the M32 and not think twice.

After all, bright colourful images promoting fast food, far-away holidays and Dwayne Johnson have become so much a part of our surroundings that many of us don’t notice the adverts - or at least, we don’t notice that we notice them. So why should we care?

Personal testimonials from people affected by the screens reveal the deep mental and social damage created by their existence. That’s why we’ve launched a campaign to ask Bristol City Council to take action to remove them.

The testimonials we collected point to the digital nature of the billboard, in particular, as central to the distress people are experiencing.

This is significant because digital billboards are a relatively new phenomenon. Their arrival and proliferation has opened up the city to the influence of large scale, digital outdoor advertising. There have been positive consequences - they have allowed the council to fund the maintenance of some bus stops, for example - but also many negative ones, as our testimonials show.

Brightly illuminated and rapidly changing advertisements distract drivers and pedestrians, overwhelming viewers with their content. Digital billboards exacerbate the problems created by paper billboards by supercharging the role of advertising in the economy of attention: whereas a paper billboard could only show you one image at a time, the glaring, sequential ads shown by digital billboards can shatter your resolve to not have a Big Mac before you’ve even had time to walk all the way past it.

Adblock Bristol launched in 2017 as a response to growing concerns among Bristol’s residents about the impacts of corporate outdoor advertising in our city.

Since then we’ve worked with local communities to successfully oppose more than 30 individual planning applications by advertising companies for huge digital advertising screens in Bristol, and dozens of smaller ones too. This has been made possible by more than 2,000 individual objections from local residents, community groups and councillors.

Objections to billboards revolve around their impact on the visual culture of our community. Wherever you live, a community’s visual surroundings help to shape the attitudes, motivations and beliefs of the individuals within it.

The M32 digital advertising screens (Image: Adblock Bristol)

The M32 billboards in Easton undermine local culture and cause harm to the numerous people who live near and pass by them every day. It is only by enacting change to ensure the right to the self-expression of communities subjected to the influence of digital billboards that we can hope to create a thriving and productive city.

We hope that the people of Bristol will use the lever of Adblock to oppose the commercial interest of advertising companies, to ensure that we have a say over our visual culture and a chance to live in a happy, healthy and interconnected community.

People in Bristol are calling for community-led alternatives which celebrate local cultures, local economies and a healthier, happier environment for us all.

Removing huge digital screens will send a strong message that Bristol is truly a city for creativity, community and local voices, rather than corporate interests.

Find out more about the Screened Out campaign here.