Proactive Investors - The UK Advertising Standards Agency has banned advertisements from three major airlines - Air France-KLM (LON:0LN7), Deutsche Lufthansa (ETR:LHAG) and Etihad Airways - for misleading environmental claims, a practice known as 'greenwashing'.
Air France-KLM's advertisement, seen in July 2023, promoted flights from Manchester to Bangkok, claiming that the airline is "committed to protecting the environment" and enables people to "travel better and sustainably".
The ASA challenged this ad, deeming it misleading regarding the airline's environmental impact, concluding that the ad misled consumers about the environmental impact of flying with Air France, as there was no evidence demonstrating the airline's commitment to environmental protection or sustainable aviation.
Consequently, the ad was banned, and Air France-KLM was instructed to ensure future ads do not mislead about their environmental impact.
Similarly, the ASA criticised Lufthansa's offering of a "fly more sustainably" option. Lufthansa explained that this referred to their 'Green Fares' option on European flights, which purportedly reduced 20% of flight-related CO2 emissions using sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and offset the remaining 80% of CO2 emissions through contributions to climate protection projects.
However, the ASA upheld the complaint, stating that the ad's claim could mislead consumers into thinking Lufthansa offered a lower environmental impact compared to other airlines.
The ASA found the basis of the "Fly more sustainably" claim unclear, leading to the ad's ban and a directive to Lufthansa to avoid misleading environmental impact claims in future advertisements.
Etihad Airways faced a similar issue with its ad, which included phrases like "Environmental Advocacy" and "Total Peace Of Mind" about environmental impact.
The ASA stated: “While we welcomed Etihad’s decision to remove the phrase ‘Environmental advocacy’ from future ads, we had not seen any evidence that they were engaged in such advocacy, or that they actively worked to protect the environment in a way that meant consumers could use their services with 'Total Peace Of Mind' with regard to the environmental impact of doing so.”
Greenwashing refers to a form of marketing spin where green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to persuade the public that an organisation's products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly.