Most people in Britain say they oppose factory farming. So why are we still surrounded by adverts selling products that depend on it? That is the contradiction behind Gag Big Ag, a new campaign calling for meat and dairy advertising to be removed from council-owned land.
According to Adfree Cities, around 85% of animals farmed in the UK are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations. At the same time, 73% of people oppose the factory farming of chickens and other animals. Those figures should be difficult to reconcile. They become easier to understand when you look at what people actually know about animal farming.
Nearly three quarters of British shoppers reportedly believe farmed chickens are no longer kept in cages. More than half of people are unaware that cows used for dairy must become pregnant to produce milk. Meanwhile, the public sees burgers, chicken buckets and dairy products advertised everywhere, usually without the sheds, confinement, breeding, killing or other realities required to produce them. That is what advertising does so effectively. It does not simply tell you that a product exists. It makes the product seem normal.
When McDonald’s and KFC spent more than £110 million on outdoor advertising in 2024, they were not showing people where the animals came from. They were selling familiarity, convenience and pleasure. The victims disappear.
Councils are not required to give every industry access to bus stops, billboards and other public spaces simply because someone is willing to pay for them.
Hackney Mayor Zoe Garbett has already pledged to end meat and dairy advertising on council-owned land. Amsterdam has gone further, banning adverts for both fossil fuels and meat. Utrecht and Zwolle have also moved against meat advertising.
This is hardly unprecedented.
We already accept that advertising can shape behaviour, normalise harmful products, and mislead people through what advertisements leave out as much as what they show.
So perhaps the strangest thing is not that these campaigners want these adverts removed. It is that industries breeding and killing billions of animals have been allowed to present themselves in public space for so long as nothing more controversial than lunch.
If people oppose factory farming, perhaps we should stop helping factory farming advertise itself.