Advertising on Council Websites

It is perhaps a sign of the times we live in that many local councils now run commercial advertising on their websites. I couldn’t quite place why that bothered me until today.

I was browsing Walsall Council’s website, looking at their pages for crisis loans and financial support and right next to the information for people in desperate need of help, I was served adverts for two different high interest credit cards. Someone experiencing a financial crisis looking for support, should be able to do so without being targeted by credit card companies on the state’s own official platform. It felt inappropriate and almost predatory.

The ads seem to come from the “Council Advertising Network,” which I’ve heard of in relation to theprofiling of council website visitors. Reading their policy, I can see they see that try to filter out inappropriate advertising. But thatmisses the point.

A page for those in distress on a public body’s website should be neutral, and not be seen as a potential ‘revenue stream’. I wrote to the council to suggest they stop serving ads on these pages altogether. We have created a situation where council budgets are stretched so thin that the temptation for this type of monetisation will remain hard to resist.