NOT GREEN: Norway has banned ads that say cars such as this Toyota Prius are "clean" or environmentally friendly".
NOT GREEN: Norway has banned ads that say cars such as this Toyota Prius are "clean" or environmentally friendly".
Prove 'clean, green' ads, Norway tells automakers
By Alister Doyle
motoring.co.za
OSLO, Norway — Norway's consumer ombudsman has targeted automakers who claim that their cars are "green", "clean" or "environmentally friendly" with some of the world's strictest advertising guidelines.
They will take effect in Norway on October 15, 2007.
Consumer ombudsman official Bente Oeverli said: "Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage than others."
She said automakers such as Toyota, Opel, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Citroen, Saab and Suzuki had all used phrases during 2007 in advertising that the watchdog judged as misleading
One Toyota advertisement for a Prius described the petrol-electric hybrid as "the world's most environmentally friendly car".
She said: "If someone says their car is more 'green' or 'environmentally friendly' than others then they would have to be able to document it from production, to emissions, to energy use, to recycling.
"That can't be done."
The guidelines distributed to automakers say: "We ask that phrases such as 'environmentally friendly', 'green', 'clean', 'environmental car', 'natural' or similar descriptions not be used in advertising cars."
Manufacturers risk fines if they fail to drop the words. Oeverli said she did not know of other countries going so far in cracking down on cars and the environment.
However, Britain's advertising watchdog said that Volvo advertisements should not repeat a claim that its C30 was "designed with the utmost respect for the environment in mind"
Oeverli said auto manufacturers were making huge investments in cleaning up emissions and seemed happy to get clearer rules about advertising. In future, in Norway, they could only make provable claims.
That meant even phrases such as "Car X has low emissions of carbon dioxide" (the main greenhouse gas released by burning oil) should be avoided.
The watchdog argued that mentioning carbon dioxide alone could mislead buyers into believing that the car also had low emissions of toxic nitrous oxide or other polluting particles.
Transport, mainly trucks and cars, accounts for about 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from human sources, widely blamed for fuelling global warming that could bring more floods, desertification, heat waves and rising seas.- Reuters
Stefan Kotze of the SA Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) told motoring.co.za his organisation could only act on complaints from the public.
When such complaints were received, he said, the ASA would ask the offending advertiser to comment and then make a ruling based on the truth or otherwise of the claims made.
There were no specific guidelines in the Code of Advertising Practice, he said, as to what automakers could or couldn't say about their products.
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