Airline greenwash grounded by Swedish ad regulator

Image credit: Nick Herasimenka on Unsplash

In its latest ruling, the Swedish advertising regulator has found the airline, Lufthansa, guilty of greenwashing. The decision followed complaints about their latest advert that promised carbon neutral flights. Our Swedish colleagues at Badvertising report on the issue:

The airline industry’s climate reputation is poor, and understandably so given that flying is one of the fastest ways to speed-up climate breakdown. The problem is compounded by the fact that there is no credible way for the industry to quickly adapt, change and reduce its impact without significantly shrinking the number of flights. 

All technological fixes face major obstacles. Electric flights have a very limited potential, in terms of range, speed of deployment and size of aircraft. The technology is not ready yet for any kind of roll-out. Hydrogen-powered flights, meanwhile, would weigh a lot and require completely different vehicles.In the meantime, the industry's "solution" is to lure customers with hollow promises about offsetting the use of fuel blended with biofuels. 

Last autumn, Lufthansa ran a campaign on Facebook. The message was not entirely clear: the reader was offered to fly limitlessly and "CO2-neutral now" to "help us become carbon-neutral by 2050". A contradiction in terms that seemed to fly straight passed the airline.

Lufthansa advert found guilty of ‘greenwash’ by the Swedish advertising regulator

The underlying message however was very clear: flying with us is "green" and you can fly as much as you want without needing to worry about your impact on the climate or planet. The advert redirected customers to the company’s website to find out more about how “green” the airline is. 

It is important to realise that, however misleading, Lufthansa's advertisement is completely in line with the industry’s wider ‘Fly Net Zero’ greenwash campaign, coordinated by IATA, the international airline industry body.

Several people reported the twitter post to the Swedish Advertising Regulator, Reklamombudsmannen, RO. Despite the regulators general lack of teeth, whose only criteria for judgement is that adverts must follow International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) guidelines, Lufthansa’s advert still did not pass that test, and in November the authority ruled that the ad was indeed in breach of ICC rules:

"The board notes that in the advertisement, regardless of version, there is no qualification that makes it clear that carbon dioxide neutrality is achieved through, for example, climate compensation and finds, already against this background, that an average consumer risks being misled about the climate impact of air travel. The fact that information is available on the advertiser's website about how the advertiser works to achieve carbon neutrality does not change the assessment. The advertisement therefore contains misleading claims about carbon neutrality and thus contravenes Articles 5 and D1 of the ICC Rules."

In other words, the advert was found guilty of greenwashing. However there was no hefty fine, nor even a penalty administered to Lufthansa, apart from the company receiving a warning from the regulator. 

We cannot rely on the advertising regulator’s willingness to tackle the extent of greenwash and high-carbon advertising. We need to end adverts that fuel the climate emergency and mislead the public on the issue. #Banfossilads