An unlikely gang including the Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, Stephen Fry, the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, and three-time Oscar winning costume designer Sandy Powell are all unhappy about 5G coming to the London Underground, and particularly the promotional ad featuring a young woman glued to her phone.
Together they’ve written a letter to London mayor Sadiq Khan saying “As parents work tirelessly to preserve their children’s right to develop without the constant distraction of digital connectivity, London’s Underground stations now send an implicit message to children — and parents — that smartphone use is the default, leaving little room for alternatives.”
The group is claiming that the ad breaches the UK code of broadcast advertising, which states that “advertisements must not condone, encourage or unreasonably feature behaviour that could be dangerous for children to emulate.”
They’ve even suggested an alternative approach:
But how much influence do celebrities really have? Fewer of them are appearing in our Christmas ads, and even Taylor Swift couldn’t make a dent in the US election result.
