A billboard campaign like this one in the U.S. is about to be launched in the U.K. (Corporate Ethics International)

Environmental groups based in the United States say they're expanding a controversial anti-oilsands billboard and advertising campaign.

Brant Olson, of the Rainforest Action Network in San Francisco, says billboards targeting the Canadian oilsands will pop up around London, England.

He says they will show oil-coated ducks in an Alberta oilsands waste pond and compare them to oil-coated pelicans from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

It's similar to the "Rethink Alberta" campaign launched in the U.S. earlier this summer that urged vacationers not to travel to Alberta.

Olson says they also want to convince European banks to stop lending money to companies with interests in the industry.

A similar campaign in the U.S. drew an angry reaction from oilpatch leaders and Canadian politicians, who said that the group's message contained errors.

An organizer for one of the groups involved in Rethink Alberta says those mistakes have been fixed.