Every month the Consumer Choice Center awards an institution, person, or organization with the Bureau of Nannyism or short BAN Award. The BAN Awards recognize the work of an individual or organization that has made major contributions to advocating limits on consumer choice. This award serves to recognize extraordinary abilities in disregarding consumers and evidence-based public policy. The award was created by the Consumer Choice Center to draw attention to the important role politicians, lobbies, and advocates play in limiting consumers’ choice and ignoring them in the policymaking process.
Selection criteria: The Bureau of Nannyism (BAN) is a group of consumer choice advocates that discusses nominations on a monthly base and awards the nominee with the most innovative or most blunt actions against consumer choice with the BAN award.
Transport for London receives the April 2019 BAN Award for rejecting an advertisement designed to run on the London Underground because it contained bacon, butter and jam. Previously, on the 25th of February 2019, junk food advertising was banned on the entire Transport for London (TfL) network. Since then on, food and drink brands “will […]
The City of Los Angeles, California receives the February 2019 BAN Award for being the largest municipality in the United States to outlaw the sale of animal fur, depriving consumers of fashion choices and endorsing a policy that ignores evidence on animal conservation. The ban is expected to go into full force by 2021, unless the […]
The City of Miami Beach, Florida receives the November 2018 BAN Award for passing some of the harshest penalties and regulations on home-sharing in the country, threatening fines starting at $1,000 on the first offense and criminal charges as a third strike. The law also forces online platforms to collect significant business and tax […]
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a treaty of the World Health Organization (WHO), receives the October 2018 BAN Award for preventing tobacco harm reduction and denying the science on life-saving e-cigarette and vaping technology. The award is given to highlight the Consumer Choice Center’s #defundWHO the main goal of which is to unveil the […]
U.S. Senators Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) receive the September 2018 BAN Award for proposing to make flying more expensive by re-regulating the airline industry and forbidding certain fees for better service and options on flights. The U.S. Senate’s version of the FAA reauthorization bill includes a provision authored by U.S. Senators Markey and Blumenthal […]
The city of Seattle receives the August 2018 BAN Award for being the first major U.S. city to ban the use of plastic straws, threatening businesses who offer them with a fine of $250. The Consumer Choice Center’s Deputy Director Yaël Ossowski remarked that Seattle’s efforts are no doubt well-intentioned, but they effectively punish consumers […]
The state of California receives the July 2018 BAN Award for being a pioneer in the limiting of consumer freedom and choice, from the banning of plastic bags to foie gras to the Prop 65 requirements that slapped cancer warning labels on coffee. The Consumer Choice Center’s Deputy Director Yaël Ossowski remarked that California is […]
The City of Hamburg, Germany receives the May 2018 BAN Award for being the first city banning certain Diesel cars from some of its main streets. The Consumer Choice Center’s Managing Director Fred Roeder explains that only a few municipal governments have managed to discriminate that many consumers at once: “Over 200,000 local Diesel drivers […]
