Watch: Innocent TV advertisements banned for misleading environmental claims
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).BannedAfter Innocent’s watchdog ruled they were misleading customers about the company’s environmental impact, TV ads for Innocent were removed.
Plastic Rebellion, an environmental group, reported the TV advertisement claiming that Innocent drinks were good for the planet.
Innocent’s advertisements feature animated characters encouraging people “get fixing up our planet” by purchasing the company’s beverages. The firm stated that it had intended to highlight “the need of collective action”.
ASA stated that the ads did not show that Innocent single-use plastic products had a net positive environmental impact over their entire life cycles.
Coca Cola owns the majority of the brand.KO) has been making an effort to improve its climate credentials among consumers.
Innocent replied in the ruling that it was a B Corp, which is a certification given by the organisation B Lab for firms that demonstrate a high level of social and environmental performance.
The smoothie-maker stated that it was committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and had opened a carbon neutral factory that used renewable energy. It also boasted a cleaning system that reduced water consumption by 75%.
The bottles sold by the firm in Britain are made of 50% recycled plastic and 50% virgin materials, with the exception of the caps and labels.
It said that it was not trying show that smoothies are good to the environment and was instead urging customers to take action to protect the planet.
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The ruling by ASA states that many consumers would interpret the overall presentation to mean that Innocent products would have a positive effect on the environment.
Officials from the regulator stated that they needed evidence to support this claim, but they were not satisfied by the response.
“Although Innocent took various actions to reduce their environmental impact, it was not clear that their products had a net environmental benefit over their entire life cycles,” the regulator stated.
“We also observed that the bottles they used for drinking contained non-recycled material and that the extraction and subsequent processing of that material to make the bottles would have a negative environmental impact.”
Innocent can no longer use the ad as it stands or make claims about its products’ environmental benefits without providing evidence.
Innocent’s spokesperson said that they were disappointed by the ASA’s decision. Our advertisement was intended to highlight important global environmental issues as well as the need for collective action to address them.
“We transparently share more information about our work on sustainability on this website. We would like to work with other brands and the ASA to find ways to align with them in order to continue the conversation about these important topics.
Plastics Rebellion spokesperson stated that “You can’t be a major contributor of a global environmental and health emergency and claim to repair the planet.”
They said that Innocent was being “disingenuous” about the dangers of plastic’s impact on human health and the environment. They also “trivialized the terrible scale of the problem by repeating the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle”.
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