The posters will also be removed from bus stops on campus. Photo Resource Wageningen municipality will soon stop allowing adverts in bus shelters. That includes adverts for fast food and soda. A step towards a healthy and sustainable living environment, according to Associate Professor Maartje Poelman (Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles).
Wageningen aims to be a sustainable, liveable and healthy city. ‘This decision will make the city calmer, with less light pollution, less energy use and a street environment with fewer stimuli’, says Alderman for Sustainability, Erik-Jan Bijleveld. The advertisements for unhealthy and polluting products, which are often placed in bus shelters, will also be taken. Poelman: ‘A great development within the universal prevention of food-related chronic illnesses.’
Normal
A recent study by WUR PhD candidate Tamika Wopereis and colleagues shows that consumers consider food adverts in the streets normal. Wageningen residents also link adverts for unhealthy products to their day-to-day social activities, the participants in her research say. To them, the adverts serve as a constant reminder of how readily available and affordable food is. From ice-creams at the pool to adverts for beer along the sports field, these stimuli normalise unhealthy choices. In a different study conducted by the same researchers, the participators indicated they feel that adverts for healthy food are more acceptable than those for unhealthy products. At the same time, they stated that they believe such adverts mainly stimulate others, rather than them, to choose unhealthy food. Adverts in the streets normalise eating unhealthy foods.
A still-unpublished study conducted by the Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles group reveals that unhealthy foods are heavily promoted. Poelman: ‘With the help of WUR students, we registered advertisements in 39 bus shelters and nine individual poster boards in Wageningen every Wednesday for five weeks in the fall of 2022. We counted a total of 1889 posters in the bus shelters, of which roughly a third were food advertisements, and almost three-quarters of that aimed at unhealthy food.’
Temptation
These results were shared with Wageningen municipality and are currently being analysed further. Wageningen has decided to take action now. If the municipal council approves the proposal, all adverts will disappear as of 1 January 2026. Maud Hulshof, Alderman for Food in the municipal council: ‘If you are constantly tempted to choose unhealthy foods, it is difficult to withstand. I am very happy with this step. We are removing some of the temptation while increasing the range of healthy options.’
The decision also means that there is a deficit in the city budget. Wageningen received some 15000 euros per year in promotion income, says Alderman Hulshof. ‘And the cost for maintaining the promotion facilities is approximately 30 thousand euros per year. We have asked the council to include these costs in the budget for the upkeep of all public spaces in Wageningen.’
