The number of advertisements banned for “greenwashing” has tripled in one year, The Independent can reveal.
Sixteen adverts overstated their company’s green credentials or made environmental claims that could not be confirmed in the past 12 months, according to analysis of thousands of decisions by the UK advertising watchdog.
These advertisements – by Innocent Drinks, Alpro and Oatly among others – have been banned from reappearing in the same form.
Analysis of Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decisions by The Independent found that there had been a sharp increase in the number of listings greenwashed – both in recent months and compared to the previous year.
Eleven of the 16 advertisements banned between mid-March 2021 and 2022 dated from the first months of this year.
And that total over the past 12 months was triple the number of bans for greenwashing over the same period the year before, which was just five.
According to The Independentthe analysis of.
Toby King, a spokesman for the ASA, said he thought people were “more concerned” and “educated” about the climate crisis and greenwashing now – which could lead to the increase in banned ads.
“We’ve done a lot of work to let people know that when you see an ad for green claims, we’re the guys you go to if you think it’s inaccurate or doesn’t tell the truth,” a- he declared. The Independent.
He added: “I think we are seeing a sea change in the public’s understanding of green claims and that people want to buy in an ethical and green way. We all want to do our part.
The 16 greenwashing decisions from the previous 12 months also included companies reprimanded for several advertisements on different platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, newspapers and television.
This includes Innocent Drinks, which last month had TV, Youtube and video-on-demand ads banned that featured cartoon characters singing about “fixing the planet” and recycling while drinking its products.
ASA said the adverts implied that buying Innocent products would have a “positive environmental impact when it did not” and were therefore misleading. Innocent said he was “disappointed” with the decision and the publicity intended to “highlight important global environmental issues and the need for collective action”.
Ads for Lipton iced tea and Aqua Pura water were also banned this year for falsely claiming the bottles were made from 100% recycled materials.
The poster on a bus shelter stated that the bottled products were “100% recycled*” – with an asterisk pointing to small text indicating that this excluded the cap and label – and showed shots of bottles making the same claim of recycling.
A Pepsi Lipton International spokesperson said the ad was not “intended to mislead” but “simply celebrated that the plastic bottle is now made from 100% recycled PET”. But ASA said it shouldn’t appear in the same form.
Also in January, the ASA banned ads from Oatly, a plant-based milk substitute company, for misleading environmental claims, including: “Oatly generates 73% less CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per compared to milk, calculated from the producer to the grocer”.
The company said it could have been “more specific” in how it presented the scientific data following the ruling.
Andrew Simms of the Badvertising campaign said The Independent:”More pressure on businesses due to growing awareness of the climate emergency means some big polluters are choosing the easy option of trying to change their image rather than changing their business. This leads to greenwashing.
He said the ASA seemed to “leave out many of the big polluting fish” such as oil companies and airlines and instead “take other smaller and relatively innocuous examples”.
“Greenwashing needs further investigation, but it will be perverse if the new review fails to tackle the worst polluters and is exploited to target others trying to make a positive difference. ”
The ASA denied the accusation that it dealt only with “small fry”, saying it had also ruled against airlines and car manufacturers.
In 2020 he said three RyanAir adverts were misleading about claims it was the ‘cleanest airline’ and ‘low CO2 emissions’. Following the ruling, the airline remained defiant and insisted it had the lowest emissions per passenger than others in Europe.
Harriet Lamb, chief executive of climate charity Ashden, said The Independent“Greenwashing confuses the public, downplays the severity of the global climate crisis and therefore ultimately brings us closer to climate catastrophe.
“Strict implementation of strict advertising regulations is vital. But we must also go much further: advertising must be banned for highly polluting companies.