The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is to release new guidance to ensure ads don't mislead people about the environment.
The regulator will be launching inquiries to analyse environmental claims made by companies in sectors such as energy, waste and transport.
It found there's currently "significant scope" for firms to make mistakes.
The ASA will also commission research into carbon neutral and net zero promises made in ads.
The review will be "shining a greater regulatory spotlight" to make sure firms are socially responsible when considering environmental issues.
www.bbc.com/...
When I saw the crawl headline on BBC World it caught my attention because I was unfamiliar with the term “greenwashing”. I sure do know it when I see it, though. This one always gets my dander up.
Mainly because it’s a fairy tale.
Plastic recycling is a myth': what really happens to your rubbish?
The ASA is a self-regulatory body of the advertising industry so there is a question of how much impact this will have in the UK.
In the US, the federal government and the states regulate advertising.
The law requires you to be truthful when you advertise a product or service. What you say in your ad shouldn't deceive or mislead customers into thinking your product or service can do something it can't. Unlawful advertising can be an outright falsehood, such as-"Big Health herbal supplements cure the common cold," or it can mislead customers by implying something is true when it's not. It would be unlawful to advertise that "Big Health herbal supplements kill the germs that cause common colds," because you are implying that the supplements cure colds even though you don't expressly say so.
www.nolo.com/...
The problem, it seems to me, is that these laws apply to the verbal copy, not to non-verbal elements such as visual images and sounds. All ads sell fantasy. Some are more misleading than others. So you can’t say “Big Health herbal supplements cure the common cold” but you can show people leaping around ecstatically in the pink of health and the non-verbal message will be that Big Health herbal supplements will transform you into one of these bouncy, sparkling bon vivants. It’s not lying according to the letter of the law, but it’s lying nevertheless.
Here’s another fairy tale that sticks in my craw. Not one lie in it and yet it is one big lie.