Alliance against urban 4X4s says most car advertisements 'are illegal'
Wed 12 March 2008
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The Alliance against Urban 4x4s has written to the Transport Secretary asking her to act urgently to correct an error in guidance given to car dealers and manufacturers about the display of CO2 information on car advertisements. Meanwhile, a researcher in Belgium has reached similar conclusions. Also in the UK, more car companies have been criticised by the UK's advertising regulator for making unjustified environmental claims in their adverts.
The Alliance says that most car advertisements are not observing the rules set out in Directive 1999/94/EC which states that vehicles' fuel consumption and CO2 emissions must be included on all promotional printed materials and "must be easy to read and no less prominent than the main part of the information provided".
The group says it has also written to the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) asking them to take urgent action to correct the advice given in a Guidance Note which interprets the EC's Car Fuel Labelling Directive, which was translated into UK law in 2001. The Alliance says that legal advice it has received shows that the effect of that Guidance Note is that a large number of car manufacturers are currently acting unlawfully.
The Alliance also says that the majority of billboard car advertisements in the UK are breaking the law by not providing any CO2 information at all. This is because the VCA has unlawfully exempted 'primarily graphical ads' from providing CO2 information in their Guidance Note.
A Belgian researcher, Pierre Ozer from the University of Liège, has independently reached similar conclusions to the Alliance about the misapplication of Directive, 1999/94/EC. In interviews with the Belgian press, Mr Ozer says that he has yet to find any advertising that comes close to the standard mandated in the Directive.
Meanwhile, Renault, Saab and General Motors have all been forced to withdraw car advertisements after complaints were referred to the Advertising Standards Authority about misleading environmental claims in their advertising.
Renault has promised to withdraw a press ad showing leaves emerging from the exhaust pipe of its Twingo car after the ASA ruled that the company had "exaggerated the environmental benefits" of the vehicle. The ASA said that the ad for Renault's Twingo Dynamique, which was set against a green background and showed an image of the car with the words "eco-nomical eco-logical" written on one of the leaves coming out of the exhaust, was "likely to mislead".
In its ruling, the regulator also criticised the advertisement's use of the Renault logo Eco2, which referred to a company's campaign to help reduce CO2 emissions. The ASA said that the ad failed to qualify the nature of the Eco2 scheme and misled customers into believing the car caused relatively little harm to the environment and had low emissions compared with other similar cars.
Saab has also been cautioned by the advertising regulator for misleading consumers over claims that the use of bioethanol fuel in its BioPower vehicle range does not significantly raise levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The advert claimed that the Saab BioPower range has a lower carbon footprint than equivalent cars running on standard fuels and went on to claim that driving one of the vehicles means driving with a "cleaner conscience" and that with bioethanol, which is made from natural crops, there is a reduction in CO2 emissions of "up to 70%".
The ASA supported Saab's claim of "up to 70% emissions reductions" which the company said was based on guidance from the Energy Saving Trust. The Authority said it also found evidence to support the claim from sources including Defra and the DfT. However, the ASA ruled that the second claim, that "bioethanol consumption does not significantly raise atmospheric levels of CO2" was misleading because a 30% net addition to atmospheric CO2 was "significant" and therefore that the claim was likely to mislead readers.
General Motors is also reported to have withdrawn an advert for the Hummer H3 4x4 after pressure from Friends of the Earth Scotland. FoE says that the company removed claims of fuel efficiency after it made a complaint to the ASA. FoE says that the Hummer H3 is one of the least fuel efficient vehicles on the market.
The GM advert claimed that the vehicle has "Half the calories. All the flavour" and that is was "built for UK roads, it's smaller, fuel efficient...".
In the recent Budget, the Chancellor called for "the strengthening of advertising regulation to provide clearer information on vehicles" following one of the recommendations of the King Review. The Government called on the DfT to work with the LowCVP to actively explore this and other ideas, all intended to influence consumer behaviour by providing improved information. (See associated LowCVP link for more.)
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