Companies are still in green in advertisements after being censored, the British survey finds | Advertisement

The companies continued to display deceptive green advertisements after being censored by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), according to an investigation.

The Greenpeace UK investigative journalism unit, Unterhed, reports that Virgin Atlantic, Renault and Aqua Pura are among the companies that have continued to publish unfounded claims on the environmental references of their products after being invited to delete these advertising dog advertisements.

In 2021, the ASA announced a repression of Greenwashing, censoring companies for having made complaints without proof. He said 44 companies had made misleading advertisements. More recently than last week, at least five of these companies still displayed allegations that they had been censored for having done, according to UNTERTHED.

ASA rules mean that advertisers must be clear about evidence of any environmental complaints, and high evidence is necessary for any absolute complaint, such as a product is “sustainable” or “environmentally friendly”. The watchdog has few powers to ensure that companies comply with their decisions; He says that if companies ignore the rules, it can “considerably damage their reputation”. However, he does not have the power to issue fines to advertisers.

Available sanctions include the name of the company on the ASA website, asking search engines to delete paid search advertisements that contain complaints, asking the social media companies to delete “non -compliant content” and withdraw its own paid research announcements.

Virgin Atlantic kept the poles “pinned” at the top of his Instagram, Tiktok and X accounts, saying that he finished the first transatlantic flight using “100% of sustainable aviation fuel”, according to Unherdhed. This despite the ASA which made a decision against the airline nine months ago for this wording in an advertisement, because it was likely to bring consumers to overestimate carbon savings in the use of fuel – he thought that consumers would interpret “a 100%sustainable aviation fuel” to signify that fuel was completely lasting without negative environmental impact.

Renault has repeatedly published videos on Facebook and YouTube Last year, saying that his hybrid cars offered “up to 80% electric driving in the city”, despite a decision by ASA in 2023, which this wording is misleading.

Other car manufacturers have continued to make green demands on their vehicles after being censored by ASA. Last year, MG promoted its hybrid cars as “zero emissions”, but the ASA judged the complaint misleading, because hybrid vehicles are not zero emissions when they are supplied by petrol or diesel. Electric vehicles are only zero emissions when they lead if the electricity that has loaded them is 100% renewable. A brochure of August 2024 for an electric vehicle promoted in an original advertisement prohibited by ASA used the term “zero emissions” without clarification several times. Meanwhile, an announcement for a used MG4 on the company’s website suggests that drivers can “adopt zero emissions” without clarification.

The first page of the Bottled Water Brand Aqua Pura website as recently as last week boasted of its “new environmental caps”, three years after the ASA told the company to stop claiming that plastic bottle covers were “respectful of the environment”. Easigrass, which makes plastic lawns, was informed by ASA over a year ago to stop calling its “ecological” synthetic grass products. However, he continued to claim on his website that one of his plastic products is “environmentally friendly and 100% recyclable”. At the time, the watchdog said that there was no evidence that plastic grass was “ecological” and that one installation in the United Kingdom can recycle plastic grass.

An ASA spokesperson said: “Our advanced work on climate change and the environment continue to be a priority area and we continue to monitor green demands in a proactive manner using our AI AI-based advertisement monitoring system, by finding announcements that potentially violate our rules and to obtain those that make quickly or deleted.

“We see companies adapt and evolve to make better green and more precise affirmations. For example, by following our airline decisions on sustainable ” and “respectful” ads, but when we find problems, we highlight.

A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said: “We have committed to reaching Net Zero by 2050 and that the key to it will use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is one of the most immediate levers to decarbonize long-haul aviation.

“Social publications have been shared to mark the success, demonstrate the extent of the project and the challenges that remain for the industry to reach zero net.”

A Renault spokesperson said: “Renault UK takes responsibility seriously and will investigate the problems raised.”

An Aqua Pura spokesperson said that his advertising team had recently undergone a restructuring, which means that it was difficult to implement all the recommendations, adding: “We will check the current and future application of all the recommendations relating to environmental allegations, in particular on our website.”

MG Motor UK said: “MG Motor UK fully accepted and then immediately responded to the ASA at the time, which concerns a hybrid vehicle also presented alongside an EV model and it was a point of clarification of the ASA that we accepted. We will always cooperate fully and actively with the ASA concerning all the guidelines and all our creative teams are entirely informed to do so. ”

A spokesperson for Easigrass said: “We recognize the ASA’s decision published in March 2024 and can confirm that the marketing language referenced in your message was provided for withdrawal following this decision. Although our intention was to ensure that all the relevant content has been updated accordingly.