So-called “body shaming” adverts are to be banned on public transport services in London.
The move was announced by the city’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan, and continues an admittedly short tradition of London mayors fixating on the public transport in the nation’s capital.
Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, attracted a lot of support in his first election campaign (against Ken Livingstone) with a pledge to bring back “hop on, hop off” Routemaster-style buses.
The new buses were subsequently introduced at great expense though, of course, this being the age of health and safety, the “hop on, hop off” nature of the buses was somewhat undermined by the presence of a door that prevented people from boarding or alighting while the bus was moving.
“As the father of two teenage girls, I am extremely concerned about this kind of advertising which can demean people, particularly women, and make them ashamed of their bodies. It is high time it came to an end,” Khan said.
Khan has also called on Transport for London to establish an Advertising Steering Group to keep its new policy under review.
One of the things Transport for London might want to consider is banning the consumption of foodstuffs on buses and trains.
Such a move is not likely to win the approval of hot snacks vendor Greggs plc (LON:GRG), which apparently is moving out of its pastry comfort zone and is considering offering sushi as part of a healthier range of products.
This smacks of a previous venture by Greggs, admittedly under a previous regime, where it expanded into Belgium to teach Johnny Continental a thing or two about pastries.
It turns out that Johnny Continental already knew a thing about pastries, and one of the things he knew was that he was not especially partial to a sausage roll.
The numbers from Telecom Plus PLC (LON:TEP) failed to excite the market this morning, though finnCap remains a fan.
Average revenue per user was reduced and energy churn – the proportion of customers that leave the service rose from 0.9% per month to 1.1%, but adjusted profit before tax of £54.4mln was a little ahead of the broker’s forecast of £54.1mln.
Nektan PLC (LON:NKTN) sounds like sunbed maker but it apparently is a business-to-business provider of mobile gaming platforms.
Market makers were a bit grudging in marking up the shares a halfpenny to 68pon the news that Respin, its joint venture in the US, has received approval from the designated independent test lab for release of its "Rapid Games" product, a Class II Mobile in venue gaming solution.
Michael Campbell at Northland Capital Partners helpfully translates that into English for us.
“A positive development for Nektan where the Class II Mobile approval not only benefits tribal casino customers but also opens up a new revenue stream for the Nektan JV,” he said.