Advertising is selling us a dream, a lifestyle. It promises us fulfillment and tells us where to buy it – in international flights, beef from (what was once) the Amazon, and a vast array of goods we consume like there was no tomorrow. And if advertising succeeds in keeping us on our current trajectory – there may not be a tomorrow.

In Badvertising, Andrew Simms and Leo Murray raise the alarm about an industry that is making us both unhealthy and unhappy and driving the planet to the precipice of environmental collapse.

The book explores the psychological impact of being barraged by thousands of advertisements daily. How does the commercialization of our public spaces weaken our sense of belonging? What are the pitfalls of regulation? How are car manufacturers, airlines, and oil companies lobbying to weaken climate action? And most crucially of all, what can we do to stop it?

Uncovers the devastating psychological, social and environmental costs of advertising

Introduction: How we got into this mess
1. Badvertising, ‘priming’ and why it is such a threat
2. How we banned tobacco advertising
3. How advertising increases consumption
4. Sports Sponsorship: The last refuge of the marketers
5. How airlines get us in the air
6. How the motoring industry hoodwinked their customers
7. The merry-go-round
8. What can we do?

'Brilliant work ... if you thought your brain was being gently warmed by the advertising industry, read this book and you'll realise it's being fried. I couldn't believe just how effective and how underhand some of the tactics being used in advertising are Badvertising shows how we are all prisoners, but it also passes us the keys to our cells. This book was a watershed moment for me. Since it can't have an advertising campaign, we all need to tell our friends about it.'

'A much-needed book whose time has come. The continued advertising of high-carbon products at a time of climate crisis is a form of insanity. The authors are absolutely right to call for a ban, and it can't happen too soon.'

'Why do we allow adverts that actively promote our own destruction? Halting climate catastrophe is hard enough without ads selling things that pollute more. It's extraordinary the simple case for tobacco-style bans hasn't been made so clearly before. With Badvertising, Simms and Murray have done the world an urgent favour. Funny and readable, [it] will make us all see the world and the advertising we are immersed in 24/7 in a very different way.'

'Simms and Murray are right to lay so much blame at the door of the advertising industry ... [they] are clear-headed guides through the fog. Learn the history, be enraged at the tactics, and join the struggle for a less polluted public sphere.'

‘A wonderfully witty, biting and really useful exploration of all the wrong that ads do’

'A hugely timely and important book that grapples with advertising's role in enabling climate crimes - and sets out why and how we need to stop the industry's complicity in its tracks, for the sake of a liveable future.'

'Examines the environmental, mental and social costs of advertising'