Badvert of the month: EasyJet
Black Friday EasyJet advert in the Guardian
Company: EasyJet
Location: Guardian newspaper
Frying the planet for ‘Black Friday’
Every year the Friday following the traditional celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States is “Black Friday”. Black Friday is the ultimate celebration of consumer capitalism where big brands compete to offer their most attractive deals to lure consumers. But, in keeping with the hype and false promises of much advertising, the commercial UK consumer advice service Which? revealed that 99.5% of such so-called ‘deals’ are in fact either cheaper or the same price at other times of year.
Regardless, the term has a long and mixed history with different versions competing. It appears in the late 19th century in relation to a US gold market crash in 1869. And then in the 1950s to describe the chaos in Philadelphia in the US on the day after Thanksgiving when the city filled with spectators for a sports match several of whom took advantage to shoplift. A version which has falsely taken route as an official history, has it that Black Friday started in 1975, and was a reference to the start of the Christmas shopping season when retailers’ financial accounts would no longer be “in the red” but in the black instead (according to common accounting practice red ink was used to show negative amounts while black ink represented positive sums).
Subvertising action against Black Friday in Brussels as part of the ZAP Games ‘Blackout Friday’
Today ‘Black Friday’ is often illustrated with chaotic shopping scenes reminiscent of Philadephia in the 1950s, with people in huge queues at the entrance of shopping centres and department stores, or ending up fighting with each other over desirable sale items.
But such scenes only happen because of the hype. And wouldn’t if it weren't for the deluge of corporate advertising designed to create consumer desires through cleverly curated marketing campaigns. Airlines like EasyJet are no exception. The aviation industry has taken a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now that restrictions have been significantly lifted on air travel, the sector has been heavily promoting itself in an effort to encourage people to start flying again. Ironically given the particular climate damage that results from air traffic, airlines like EasyJet and British Airways were major advertisers around COP 26, the Glasgow climate summit.
EasyJet’s Black Friday advert is problematic on many levels. It is a major problem that the company can still advertise flights for as cheap as £19.99, while it should be taxed appropriately and realistically much more highly for being the most polluting mode of transport. As long as transport options for flights remain considerably cheaper than travel by train for instance, most people will still choose to fly.
Another especially egregious point about the advert is its careless mention of future generations - the same ones whose futures will be heavily damaged by the pursuit of reckless, high-carbon behaviour encouraged by the likes of easyJet and other major polluters.
With the climate and ecologically emergency in mind, this should be considered nothing more than a “socially irresponsible” advert.
Company Background: easyJet
The ‘low-cost’ airline is renowned for its marketing campaigns promising incredibly cheap short-haul flights between European destinations - where lower carbon train travel is an alternative. When something seems too cheap, the question should always be asked, ‘what or who else is paying the price.’
In recent years, due to mounting public pressure on businesses to take the climate crisis seriously, a wind of change has been blowing over the industry to embark on a “sustainable journey”. Airlines now feel the need to propose a “guilt-free flying” option to their customers. As a result, major companies like EasyJet, British Airways or United Airlines have offered customers the option to “offset” their flight by buying into carbon offsetting schemes based on reforestation programs across Latin American and African countries. These schemes are however no solution to cutting down emissions. When they are not causing direct harm to the local communities, for example targeted by reforestation projects, the traceability of these schemes is highly flawed. An investigation by Unearthed and the Guardian found that the majority of these carbon offsetting schemes relied on so-called ‘phantom credits’. Just as damningly, a study by the German research institute Öko Institut for the European Commission showed that 85% of the offset projects under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) failed to reduce emissions, and extraordinarily only 2% of offset projects have a high likelihood of reducing emissions.
More recently, the airline has also been making promises to revolutionise the future of flying by being “zero emission” by 2030. This new ad campaign, promoted across newspapers and on billboards during COP26 was subject to a complaint to the UK advertising regulator (which was not upheld) for being highly misleading and based on unfounded claims. Airlines’ claims of decarbonising flights is part of an industry wide use of greenwashing, denounced by the campaign group Stay Grounded for relying on false solutions.
The only safe, fair and green future for aviation is one with drastic reductions in flying and a just transition for those whose livelihoods have become dependent on the industry. Adverts promoting a ‘back to the old ways’ approach to air traffic in the midst of a climate & ecological emergency are adding oil to the fire.