Geneva, the next city to ban harmful advertising?

Subvertising campaign in Geneva to denounce advertising’s climate impact. Credit: Genève sans publicités

Lucas Luisoni, an active member of the ROC-Genève (Réseau d’Objection de Croissance) - an organisation that campaigns for Degrowth - recalls the story of the initiative against corporate advertising in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. After being approved by the local authority, the democratic particularities of the Swiss political system are such that opponents to the initiative have now succeeded in launching a referendum to the initiative. On 12th March 2023, the population of Geneva will have the last say as it will be asked to vote on whether to ban commercial advertising in the city. Meanwhile, the fight continues for the proponents of the initiative. They have formed a new committee (OUI à Zero Pub), with representation from all Left-wing political parties, to campaign for a Geneva freed from commercial advertising ahead of the public vote in the coming months.

From 2017-2022: a long journey towards the initiative

Towards the end of 2016, the city of Geneva sent an invitation to tender to renew its advertising concession. Following a legal battle between two outdoor advertising groups who were fighting over each other for the contract, there was a period of about 3 weeks where the city was rid of commercial advertising. The billboards were left blank, then appropriated by the public who used these platforms to unleash their creativity.

Advertising boards appropriated by citizens’ artistic expression in Geneva. Credit: Genève sans publicités

As part of the “Vendredis de la Transition” (Transition Fridays) - a gathering of civil society groups campaigning on issues of social and ecological justice who meet weekly to discuss specific issues collectively - members of ROC-Genève brought forward the idea to seize this opportunity to push for a full ban on commercial advertising in the city of Geneva. The specificities of the Swiss political system gives citizens the power to put forward ‘popular initiatives’ at the national (federal) or local (commune or canton) level if they gather the required minimum threshold of signatures for matters that are to do with the local authority’s competency. In this case, commercial advertising in the public space forms part of the territorial policies that the ‘commune’ of Geneva has control over. Once the required 4000 signatures were gathered, several parties contested the initiative. First, the authority of the Canton of Geneva, followed by the advertising trade association and a local councillor. These disputes were brought to the constitutional and federal courts of justice, both of which ruled in favour of the proponents of the initiative each time.

Meetings at the Maison des Associations to plan for the initiative. Credit: Emmanuel Deonna

Facing the common counter-arguments

Unsurprisingly this initiative faced a lot of backlash from its opponents on the Right and representatives of advertising and communication agencies.

The recurrent narrative brought forward by the opponents was that such a ban would be damaging for the local economy. This was quickly dispelled by the initiators who argued that the estimated financial losses - between 3-4.5 million swiss francs - would only represent 0.03-0.04% of the city’s overall budget. The proponents also argued that the 3-year period until the official start of the ban in 2025 (when current advertising concessions are due to end) would also give time to find other revenues to compensate for the losses. In contrast, they argued that ending commercial advertising could bring many more socio-economic benefits to the city by supporting cultural and arts communication (the ban would only concern commercial advertising). Similarly the opponents wrongly maintained that this ban will impact local businesses to do their promotional activities. This argument was again dispelled by the initiators as the ban would not concern commercial advertising on one’s own site (publicité en site propre) as long as this space remained for the promotion of the local business’ activities and not sold to someone else to do their own advertising.

Besides, the initiators stress that there are wider social impacts resulting from the overindebtedness of the population - a consequence partly associated with the drive for consumerism that advertising facilitates - which could be reduced with this ban. Alongside the fact that commercial advertising is damaging for the environment - something that was denounced in cover-up actions in Geneva (see image below) - a concern over aesthetics is also present in the proponents’ argument especially since Geneva’s old town is de facto exempt from commercial advertising for touristic motives. Why then, would that not be extended to the rest of the city, they ask?

Cover-up action in Geneva to denounce advertising’s climate impacts. Credit: Genève sans publicités

Part of a bigger movement

In Geneva, the anti-advertising initiative was able to gather enough momentum thanks to the collective effort of different civil society groups including ROC-Genève, GLIP (Genève libérée de l’invasion publicitaire), members of the Young Socialists party and the forum Genève sans publicités, as well as the Quartiers Collaboratifs who promoted the initiative via their Vendredis de la Transition (Fridays for Transition) meetings at the Maison des Associations.

But these types of initiatives form part of a wider movement of organisations campaigning against corporate advertising. From local residents groups to anti-advertising organisations, subvertising collectives and more recently environmental activists, there is now a large network of groups demanding an end to harmful advertising.

The recently launched European Citizens Initiative, which demands a ban on fossil adverts and sponsorship, has rallied climate campaigners to the cause of anti-advertising and given impetus to subvertising groups, some of which had been struggling after two years of online organising (read more on this on Subvertisers International blog)

Next steps, looking beyond

Proponents of the initiative to ban commercial advertising in Geneva are aware that particular features of the city - in terms of its economic attractivity as well as its tools of direct democracy - have greatly contributed to the success of the initiative. However, that last aspect has also strongly slowed down the process, allowing opponents to block the initiative on several occasions. As of late, a counter-petition has managed to gather enough signatures that the citizens of Geneva will be asked to vote in a referendum on March 12th 2023 and give their last say on whether commercial advertising will be banned or not in the city. This has been fully supported by the proponents of the initiative who are in favour of generating a public debate on the topic. They maintain that the question of advertising is something that speaks to everyone and that in order to reach the text of the initiative a real debate took place. Other local authorities from the Canton of Geneva have also started to implement a ban on commercial advertising, something which was facilitated by the fact that they rely far less on advertising revenues than the City of Geneva. The initiators have also witnessed a strong interest in the initiative from people across the country and beyond with requests from France and Germany.

Whether Geneva will win the battle against commercial advertising will be determined over the coming months. But what’s for sure is that the debate around the impact of commercial advertising is only going to grow stronger and spread further across Europe.

Geneva, the next city to ban harmful advertising?

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