Here’s a story that’s been in my backlog after a very busy July, so you might have heard about this already. I wanted to cover it anyway because there are some useful lessons to note from it. In case you missed it, a few weeks ago the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned an advertising campaign by Luton Rising for misleading claims about its green growth plan.
Luton Rising is the council body that owns Luton Airport, and that has been the driving force behind plans to add another terminal and double capacity. I’ve written before about the climate impact of this expansion, what has been done to stop it, and the difficulties of holding anyone to account in a town where all politicians support the plans. But in this instance, there has been some accountability.
The ads in question appeared in magazines and on posters, including billboards at Westminster tube station – the station most likely to be frequented by members of parliament at the point when the government was due to rule on the expansion. The ad copy stated that Luton Airport’s growth would be halted if it breached environmental limits.
As I’ve described elsewhere, the airport’s Green Growth Plan doesn’t include the emissions from planes – by far the biggest contributor of carbon pollution. Since the ad didn’t mention this, complaints were filed by the Badvertising Campaign, Possible and others.
The ASA upheld the complaints. The purpose of the ads was “to reassure people about the efforts being taken to mitigate the environmental impacts caused by expansion,” they stated in their ruling. People seeing the ad would be “likely to assume that limits relating to emissions from an airport would include those from air traffic movement.”
Indeed they would – the purpose of an airport is to facilitate flights, after all. A green strategy that doesn’t include the planes ignores the central problem and could easily be mistaken for greenwash. Nevertheless, I’ve been to multiple public events where Luton Rising haven’t mentioned that they’re leaving out the planes, until someone (usually me) raises it directly in the question time.
While the ASA ruling applies to two specific adverts, Luton Rising has run a concerted campaign on airport expansion in recent months. It includes ads at Luton Town’s football ground during last year’s tour of the Premiership, which would have had a huge global TV audience. Ads appear regularly on screens in the mall, in local press, and through Luton Rising’s sponsorship of practically every major event that occurs in the town. But on this particular occasion, their wings have been clipped and I hope their advertising is a little more honest in future.
One other reason for mentioning this story – it’s worth noting that there were only 14 formal complaints about the ads. It doesn’t take a huge crowd to take down a misleading advert. If you spot greenwash – from anyone in any industry – don’t just tweet angrily about it. File a complaint through the ASA website and it’s their job to do something about it.
The Earthbound Report 