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Today is Black Friday, as you\u2019ve no doubt noticed. Ads are everywhere, screaming about \u201cunmissable\u201d discounts. (No matter that a survey by Which? <\/a>found that these so-called deals are often no cheaper than at any other time of year.)<\/p>\n But behind the consumerist frenzy lies a far more sinister cost. Trade unions, tax justice advocates, environmentalists and anti-advertising groups are mobilising globally, including here in Bristol.\u00a0<\/p>\n The true cost of Black Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n Amazon imported Black Friday from the USA in 2010. What began as a post-Thanksgiving shopping spree has now ballooned into \u201cBlack Friday Week.\u201d The fallout is extensive, and detrimental.\u00a0<\/p>\n Injuries among Amazon warehouse workers increase<\/a> in the race to meet demand. Around 1.5 million tonnes<\/a> of waste in the UK, of which 80% ends up in landfill, incineration or poorly recycled.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amazon are notorious tax dodgers. They paid UK corporation tax in 2024<\/a> for the first time since 2020, yet Ethical Consumer estimates its tax avoidance still cost the UK around \u00a3575 million that year.<\/a><\/p>\n Their abuses extend beyond economics and the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has criticised<\/a> Amazon for its role in Israel\u2019s genocide against Gaza, where Israeli military officials have credited<\/a> Amazon\u2019s software for enhanced abilities to track and kill Palestinians.\u00a0Meanwhile, Amazon dominates public space as the world\u2019s biggest advertiser,<\/a> spending $21 billion globally and \u00a330 million<\/a> on UK outdoor ads alone \u2013 bombarding our streets, our screens, TV and radio with calls to consume.<\/p>\n The resistance<\/p>\n Get our latest stories & essential Bristol news Amazon\u2019s march feels relentless, but it is being met with resistance. Mass strikes, protests and walk-outs<\/a> by Amazon workers have taken place today, coordinated by the global Make Amazon Pay<\/a> coalition, which brings together more than 80 organisations and over 400 parliamentarians. Since 2020, Make Amazon Pay has staged escalating strikes and protests at Amazon sites every Black Friday. This year, actions are planned in 35 countries across six continents.<\/p>\n Across Europe, activists are also pushing through the\u00a0 \u2018ZAP Games\u2019<\/a> \u2013 two weeks of creative interventions targeting the outdoor advertising industry that saturates our streets with intrusive digital billboards. \u201cZAP,\u201d short for Zone Anti-Publicit\u00e9 (Anti-Ad Zone), invites groups to reclaim ad spaces with art, autumn leaves, and satirical Amazon parodies.<\/p>\n Here in the UK, activists from the anonymous artist network Brandalism<\/a>, alongside Everyone Hates Elon, have staged coordinated hacks of 100 billboard and ad spaces across London over the past two weeks, reclaiming public space and calling out the power of Big Tech.<\/p>\n Here in Bristol<\/strong><\/p>\n One such billboard sits in Eastgate. It shows Amazon\u2019s energy-hungry AI data centres, which consume vast amounts of electricity and water to run and cool their servers.\u00a0<\/p>\n As Eliza Pan from Amazon Employees for Climate Justice explains: \u201cNew data centres are directly causing utilities to build new gas plants and delay coal plants\u2019 retirements, locking us into dirty energy for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n In the UK, National Grid has already received multiple requests from data-centre operators to build on-site gas plants. AI isn\u2019t just accelerating innovation, it\u2019s threatening to blow the energy transition off course.<\/p>\n To spark imagination and offer family-friendly engagement, Adblock Bristol transformed a Bedminster bus-stop ad panel into a \u201ctime machine,\u201d inviting passersby to envision a different future. Left unchecked, advertising shrinks our collective imagination: it dictates what we aspire to, who we become, and even our idea of the \u201cgood life\u201d.Meanwhile, Amazon, whose fulfilment centre near Swansea is one of 31 across Britain<\/a>, continues to benefit from publicly funded transport, education and healthcare systems to fuel its growth, all while remaining world-class at avoiding the taxes that pay for those very services, moving the envelope on how we define extractivism and exploitation.<\/p>\n \u2018Advertising shits in your head\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Adblock recently ran a workshop titled \u201cAdvertising Shits in Your Head\u201d, exploring the psychological impacts of advertising and how it shapes our desires, habits and sense of self.<\/p>\n Amazon is an emblematic example. The company has perfected the use of online technology, web design and behavioural psychology to keep us buying \u2014 so effectively that the US Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit<\/a> accusing Amazon of deploying manipulative \u201cdark patterns\u201d to trap customers into purchases and subscriptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Get our latest stories & essential Bristol news I co-founded Adblock Bristol in 2017 to reduce the quantity of advertising in public space. We have long argued that billboards are tools for large corporations like Amazon and McDonald\u2019s to maintain market dominance, often at the expense of smaller independent businesses.<\/p>\n Take for example, councillors in Newcastle<\/a> who were left bemused when weak planning laws meant Amazon were able to construct their own digital billboard in the middle of the city\u2019s main shopping street \u2013 directly drawing customers away from local shops and onto the online retailer.<\/p>\n Adfree Cities \u2014 the national network of anti-advertising groups, of which Adblock Bristol is a part \u2014 has now joined the global coalition challenging Amazon. The coalition\u2019s strength lies not just in confronting Amazon\u2019s business model, but in pushing for a reset of the labour, tax and environmental rules the UK government has so far avoided tackling.<\/p>\n By resisting planning applications for more digital ad screens and promoting positive alternatives like community art<\/a>, Adblock Bristol aims to protect neighbourhoods from the encroachment of corporate advertising. From there, we can safeguard space for a different kind of economic imagination \u2014 one rooted not in endless consumerism, but in solidarity, community connection, ecology and equality.<\/p>\n Robbie Gillett is the co-founder of Adblock Bristol<\/p>\n Independent. Investigative. Indispensable.<\/p>\n Investigative journalism strengthens democracy \u2013 it\u2019s a necessity, not a luxury.<\/p>\n The Cable is Bristol\u2019s independent, investigative newsroom. Owned and steered by more than 2,600 members<\/b>, we produce award-winning journalism that digs deep into what\u2019s happening in Bristol.<\/p>\n We are on a mission to become sustainable, and to do that we need more members. <\/b>Will you help us get there?<\/b><\/p>\n
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