One in four outdoor adverts promote unhealthy food and drinks, with the 25 biggest spenders ploughing over £400m last year on street advertising alone - now young people are fighting back

The study, which analysed outdoor advertising across Liverpool, Southwark (London), Birmingham, and Newcastle upon Tyne, found that nearly half (377, 44%) of all 859 outdoor ads captured were for food and drink. Of the 333 adverts featuring a food or drink product, the majority (190, 57%) featured at least one product high in fat, sugar and/or salt (HFSS). These are adverts located on surfaces including bus stops, billboards and telephone boxes.

These ads are not just widespread; they are heavily concentrated in the most deprived areas, where junk food adverts appeared at six times the rate per kilometre compared to the least deprived areas.

Bite Back’s analysis of ad spend data showed that in 2024, food and drink companies spent over £400 million on street advertising. The top 10 spenders included McDonald’s, PepsiCo, KFC, Coca-Cola, Mars, Mondelez and Red Bull.

This issue extends beyond the high streets. Junk food marketing surrounds children in the places they spend the most time. The research reveals that 35% of schools have at least one HFSS advert within a short walk from their gates, reinforcing unhealthy food options from an early age and normalising them as part of daily life.

Young people are fighting back

In a bold response, Bite Back youth activists, backed by Impact on Urban Health, have secured billboards across London, not to sell products, but to block junk food adverts entirely. They have placed 365 billboards in high-traffic areas such across Lambeth and Southwark, including London Bridge Station, with one clear message:

“We’ve bought this ad space so the junk food giants couldn’t – we’re giving kids a commercial break.”

Farid, a 17-year-old Bite Back activist from Manchester, said: "We wanted to turn the tactics of Big Food back on themselves and draw people’s attention to the deliberate influence these companies have over us and younger children. Their presence is everywhere, and it affects all our chances of living a long and healthy life. Junk food has become the cultural wallpaper, and it’s damaging our generation’s health. It doesn’t have to be this way. Advertising could be a force for good—imagine that."

Yacub, also 17, added: "Everywhere I look, there’s an advert for unhealthy food and drink - on my high street, at the bus stop, on billboards near my school or college. We’ve had enough. Children deserve to grow up in environments where they aren’t constantly bombarded by unhealthy food marketing."

Bite Back and Impact on Urban Health are calling for stronger regulations to protect children from junk food ads

The study demonstrates that the way junk food is advertised on our streets needs to change. Currently, unhealthy food ads dominate public spaces, unfairly influencing children and fuelling rising rates of food-related ill health. Yet outdoor advertising remains largely unregulated, governed by outdated, industry-led standards. Local authorities are doing as much as they can to set the stage for healthier food, but they don’t have control over private advertising in their local area. That’s why local leaders now need support from the national Government to protect the private advertising spaces which local policies currently can’t reach. This patchwork approach leaves children unprotected from relentless junk food promotion, with no meaningful safeguards to limit their exposure.

Bite Back and Impact on Urban Health are calling for urgent action to break this cycle and bring about meaningful policy change.