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In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority's crackdown
on misleading green ads has claimed another victim after easyJet
was ordered to change an advert which claims that it emits
22 per cent less carbon dioxide than traditional rivals.
A national press advert for the budget airline entitled -
'Demand a more intelligent approach to aviation' -
had advised customers to - 'choose airlines with new aircraft,
higher passenger loads, fewer emissions' - adding that
- 'easyJet
emits 22% less CO2'.
The figure was qualified by small print explaining that the
claim was based on 'a comparison between an easyJet
aircraft and a traditional airline flying the same aircraft
type on the same route'. However, the ASA
upheld a reader complaint that the claim was misleading on
the grounds that the lower emissions applied not to the flight
itself, but to carbon emissions per passenger.
It ruled that - "because the basis for the claim had
not been fully explained, the ad misleadingly implied that
easyJet planes were more environmentally efficient
than the aircraft used by traditional airlines, whereas we
understood that the claim 'easyJet emits 22% less
CO2' referred to emissions per passenger
km and was based primarily on the fact that they could carry
more passengers per plane than traditional airlines".
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