Environmental Graffiti

Former Labour minister and current chairman of the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) Lord Smith said he will be carefully scrutinizing companies’ green claims to make sure they are not exaggerated.

Smith, who became chairman in July, said the agency had taken note of consumer concern over the number of companies that were making green claims in their advertisements. Companies are increasingly attempting to make themselves appear more environmentally friendly.

Smith said: “Whether it’s wind turbines or airlines or cars with claims about CO2 emissions, the claims have to be accurate and the companies have to be able to justify that. My message is that erroneous claims will not slip through the net.”

The comments by Smith follow a month in which two major companies had ads banned by the agency for making misleading green claims. Both Shell and npower had ads banned by the agency in November.

Source: Guardian

If you find this information useful and would like to get daily updates, feel free to subscribe to our RSS feed.