Offensive Anti-begging Posters ‘Reinforced Negative Stereotypes’

 

Nottingham City Council has caused outrage with a series of posters designed to persuade people to stop giving money to beggars. The posters featured messages such as “Begging: Watch your money go to a fraud” and “Begging funds the misuse of alcohol.”

Critics said the posters were offensive because they implied all homeless people are involved in criminal activity. The Canaan Trust homeless charity, based in Nottingham, said that Nottingham City Council is “reinforcing social prejudices” towards the homeless, with posters urging people not to give them money. The posters have now been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) because they implied all homeless people are criminals and frauds.

The ASA said the posters “portrayed all beggars as disingenuous and undeserving individuals that would use direct donations for irresponsible means.” It added: “We further considered the ads reinforced negative stereotypes of a group of individuals, most of whom were likely to be considered as vulnerable, who faced a multitude of issues and required specialist support. On that basis we concluded [four of the ads] were likely to cause serious or widespread offence.”

Nottingham City Council said its campaign was not anti-homeless but designed to discourage members of the public from giving money to beggars. Council leader Jon Collins said: “Begging harms those who do it because it provides a ready supply of cash to be spent on life-threatening addictions.”

“Also, local people have clearly told us that begging is their number one anti-social behaviour concern in the city centre. The ASA has made a decision based on just seven complaints from people who thought the campaign targeted homeless people. It wasn’t about homelessness and made no reference to it,” Councillor Collins added.

Government figures published on Wednesday show there has been a record 10-percent rise in homelessness in the last year, as 15,170 households were forced onto the streets.

Homelessness charity Crisis said the termination of private tenancy was the leading cause of homelessness in the UK. Crisis chief executive, Jon Sparkes, said: “We need a change in the law to prevent more people from losing their home and to make sure all homeless people can get help when they need it, while councils need the funding to make this work.”

Nottingham City Council is considering appealing the ASA’s verdict.