A Surprise Spoof Ad in London’s Camden Neighborhood Leaves Viewers Confused

On a Wednesday night, my partner and I were strolling through London’s Camden neighborhood when we came across an unexpectedly blunt street advertisement. Its opening line read: “This app was designed to keep you hooked.”

The ad’s visual showed a finger tapping Instagram’s app icon, paired with the statistic: “45% of teens say they spend too much time on social media.” At first glance, the messaging felt straightforward, until we spotted the small final credit tucked in the corner, complete with a brand mark: “From Meta.”

This detail stopped us cold. We turned to each other confused, struggling to parse what we were looking at. The ad was sleek and professionally designed, so we couldn’t help but wonder: could Meta Platforms, the company that has repeatedly denied responsibility for its products’ impact on users’ mental health, really be airing this self-critical public ad?

The short answer is no. Instagram and Facebook’s parent company had no involvement in the ad at all. The spoof was created by Just Treatment, a U.K.-based health justice organization founded in 2017. The group’s newest campaign, Mad Youth Organise, pushes to expand access to affordable, high-quality mental health care for young people.

Just Treatment confirmed to Fast Company that the ad we saw is one of eight guerrilla-style placements activists have plastered across London, designed to mimic official Meta advertising to spark conversation about social media’s harms to youth.