The UK-headquartered Guardian – which now has overseas digital mastheads for three regions – is spruiking its independent ownership structure in a new advertising campaign.

Supporting its global ‘Not for sale’ campaign, it boasts it “has no billionaire or shareholders telling us what to do”, with its journalism “vital at a time when powerful people are getting away with more and more”.

Its “unique ownership model” is based on its ownership by the Scott Trust, established by a former editor in 1936, and supported by a reader-funded business model.

Guardian News & Media’s first brand campaign since 2019, ‘Not for sale’ is a collaboration with creative agency Lucky Generals, and coincides with the launch of the Guardian’s Europe edition (app and website), joining existing US and Australia editions.

It will include a new documentary work directed by New York-based Rubberband, and includes a voiceover from writer and artist Inua Ellams and an intense and emotive soundtrack. Billboards and digital ads proclaim the Guardian ‘loved’, ‘hated’, ‘trusted’, ‘feared’, ‘but never controlled’.

In addition to its own channels, the film will be seen on UK FTA TV’s Channel 4 (on demand and linear), in cinemas in the UK, and on a range of digital and social platforms across Europe. Digital screens and posters will appear in European cities including Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin and Paris, as well as London, Manchester – where the newspaper first appeared as the Manchester Guardian – Bristol, Liverpool and Edinburgh.

The company also publishes the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer.