The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned adverts from Air France, Lufthansa and Etihad, accusing the airlines of greenwashing and misleading consumers about their impact.
All adverts – which appeared on Google paid-for ads – made environmental and sustainability claims which the airlines could not substantiate. The advertising watchdog had picked up the adverts using an artificial intelligence (AI) system, which searches for possible rule breakers.
The ASA said the green claims made by the adverts were misleading and did not show the impact airlines have on climate change.
The Air France advert said the company was “committed to protecting the environment” and helped people “travel better and more sustainably” – the company did not provide a “substantive response” to the ASA investigations.
The Lufthansa advert urged passengers to use them in order to “fly more sustainably”.
Lufthansa argued that the phrase “fly more sustainably” was a reference to its green fares option which would reduce 20% of flight-related emissions by using sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and offsetting.
The airline also said that the technical limits of the Google Callouts platform on which the adverts appeared meant that only very limited information could be included in such an advert.
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However, the ASA ruled that consumers would understand “fly more sustainably” with Lufthansa to mean that they offered a way to travel by air that had a lower impact on the environment.
The regulator agreed that the use of SAF might help reduce the environmental impact of flying, but held that the basis for the claim “fly more sustainably” had not been fully made clear in the advert.
Lufthansa said it aimed to be carbon-neutral by 2050 and will be removing “fly more sustainably” from future ads.
The Etihad Airways advert used the phrase “environmental advocacy”. It removed the phrase from its adverts after receiving the complaint, but said sustainability was a “key priority”.
The regulator held that claims such as that the airline allowed consumers to explore the world with “total peace of mind” would be understood by consumers to mean that the airline would work to protect the environment.
The regulator also posited that air travel produces high levels of both CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, making a significant contribution to climate change.
