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The British Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has upheld a complaint against Shell over the company’s advertisements that suggest it uses its waste CO2 emissions to grow flowers.

What do you mean flowers don’t grow from that chimney?

Friends of the Earth filed the complaint after viewing a Shell ad that showed flowers spouting from the chimney of an oil refinery, suggesting the company used all of its CO2 waste for beneficial purposes like flower growing. Shell actually uses only 0.325% of its CO2 waste in this way. The ads also claimed that the company’s waste sulphur was used as a concrete strengthening agent. Surprisingly, this was also not the case. An immensely small amount of sulphur waste is used for this purpose.

The ASA declared the ads misleading. They forced Shell to immediately withdraw the advertisement and promise not to use it in the future.

Hannah Griffiths, the Corporate Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: “We’re delighted that Shell has been brought to book for its misleading claims. Shell is one of the world’s dirtiest companies, as people living next door to Shell’s refineries around the world know only too well. Companies making false green claims do nothing but make the situation worse as they try to pull the wool over people’s eyes and lull them into a false sense of security. It’s a shame that the ASA does not have more teeth and that Shell wasn’t fined for its deceptions.”

We here at Environmental Graffiti are incredibly upset at Shell for lying about its CO2 waste. We had total faith in them when they suggested they used all that CO2 to grow flowers. It’s ok though, I’m sure their ad promising to use their oil profits to buy everyone in the world ice cream is true, right?

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