Financial Times urged to drop fossil ads following ban of Repsol's greenwash ad

Today, the UK advertising regulator has banned an advert for Spanish oil giant Repsol (seen on the Financial Times’ (FT) online news site), alongside another one for Shell, for overstating the firm’s progress to net zero and its production of alternative fuels, such as biofuels. 

Five months after a complaint was submitted by Adfree Cities, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned Repsol’s ad on the grounds that it misled citizens by overstating Repsol’s development of alternative fuels, describing this as “a fraction of their business activities when compared to their substantial, ongoing, and expanding fossil fuel production.”

In response, the New Weather Institute, Badvertising and Adfree Cities have written a public letter to the Financial Times, to reiterate our request that the paper bans advertising for fossil fuel companies and other highly polluting industries. In an Open Letter earlier this year, we asked the FT to review its advertising policy to align the paper’s corporate strategy with its sustainability commitments and editorial stance regarding climate breakdown. We asked for the Repsol advert to be removed owing to its misleading nature and insensitive placement alongside an article about citizens impacted by environmental damage inflicted by another major fossil fuel company, Shell, in the Niger Delta. 

Repsol’s ad featured in the Financial Times and ruled misleading by the ASA

In the absence of a public response, and in light of the ASA’s ruling which affirms that the FT’s current advertising policy leaves it open to reputational and regulatory risk through carrying adverts that make misleading environmental claims, we are once again urging the FT to introduce a ban on advertising that is fuelling the climate emergency. This would follow the precedent set by a number of other major media outlets including the UK Guardian, US-based Vox Media, France’s Le Monde and Sweden’s main daily newspaper, Dagens Nhyeter, who have already taken this step. 

Media organisations like the FT have a pivotal role in addressing the climate crisis and a duty to their readers. Not only must they report with integrity and accuracy, free from the potential influence of paying advertisers, but they also must act decisively to remove misinformation and climate denialism from their pages and sites. 

For in 2023, advertising for the most highly polluting goods and behaviours functions as climate delay at best, and climate denialism at worst. There is an overwhelming consensus around how deeply and urgently humanity must cut emissions throughout the economy, which makes the ongoing promotion of fossil fuel companies, air travel, SUVs, red meat and dairy the equivalent to standing in a cyclone with our fingers in our ears.