Measuring the climate damage of airline marketing - new research

During a week of protest actions against the climate impacts of airline advertising across 30 European cities, Badvertising has released new research showing the emissions impact of airline advertising and sponsorships. 

There is a folklore saying in the marketing industry: ”We know that half of all we spend on advertising is wasted, but we don’t know which half.”  Demonstrating a direct link between a specific marketing output, such as a city billboard or a newspaper advert, has proved challenging.  

But we know that advertising works, and airlines know it too: Easyjet and other airlines have credited increases in passenger numbers to their marketing efforts. 

Airline advertising campaigns often rely on tapping into emotions, the “magic” of flying or even sustainability concerns. Increases in passenger numbers, however, results in increased emissions from flights. This includes both greenhouse gases and “non-CO2 effects”, including fine particulates and high-altitude contrails, which triple the warming effects of GHG emissions. 

New research from the Badvertising campaign now quantifies how spending on advertising and sponsorship by 6 airlines leads to an associated increase in these emissions (also known as CO2 equivalent or CO2e).

Emissions impact of six major international airlines. Read the full technical briefing and methodology.

The figures, calculated from airlines’ reporting of their total revenue and CO2e emissions, allow an airline’s advertising or sponsorship spend to be linked to its emissions impact. 

If British Airways spent £20 million on an ad campaign (an estimate based on a BA ad campaign in 2011), this would result in 978,000 tonnes CO2e. Given BA’s recent barrage of advertising, including the high-spend 2024 “Windows” and 2022 “British Original” campaigns (both by creative agency Uncommon), this is likely to be a conservative estimate. The UK flag carrier’s reported £3 million GBP deal with the England Rugby team from 2019 onwards will lead to emissions of 147 thousand tonnes of CO2e per year.

Ad-hack by the Brandalism network in Bristol, UK, satirises British Airways’ 2024 advertising campaign by Uncommon agency. Photo credit: Brandalism.

Using the figures, Lufthansa’s brand exposure in its $4 million USD deal with the German Football Association could generate 136 thousand tonnes of CO2e per year.     (Using an exchange rate of 1 USD ≈ 0.94 EUR)

Air France will sponsor the Paris 2024 Olympics this summer. The financial figures are well hidden, but if it’s similar to the €150 million euros that Louis Vuitton, Moet and Hennessey corporation (LVMH) are reported to have paid, then the resulting emissions from this Air France sponsorship will be 5.8 million tonnes of CO2e. 

Art design: Michelle Tylicki. Photo credit: Stay Grounded.

This new research comes as activist groups in 30 cities across Europe from the Brandalism and Extinction Rebellion networks have replaced more than 500 commercial advertising posters with spoof ads and artworks, in an awareness and action week coordinated by the Stay Grounded network and Badvertising.

Each group is demanding action from their local and national policymakers to end advertising and sponsorship by airlines and airports, owing to its role in continuing to ramp up demand for flying. 

“morbidJet” - a poster replacing an advert at a bus shelter in Lyon, France, satirises Easyjet airline’s marketing. Photo credit: Résistance à l'Agression Publicitaire.

The UK Government has been advised by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) that reducing demand for aviation is necessary to align the UK’s aviation sector with legally binding net-zero targets. However, the aviation industry currently has no measures in place to reduce passenger numbers, while the government’s “Jet Zero” plan to reduce emissions from aviation relies on nascent technologies such as Sustainable Aviation Fuel and electric aircraft, which have not been proven at scale. 

Also during the week of action, campaign groups including Badvertising, Adfree Cities and climate charity Possible have reported adverts for Luton Airport to the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for greenwashing its expansion proposals. 

London has been named the world’s worst city for airport pollution. However, in May 2024, the UK Planning Inspectorate will make a recommendation on whether or not the government should green-light Luton Airport’s proposal to expand from 18 million to 32 million passengers per year. 

In the ASA complaint, the airport’s ads were criticised for failing to include emissions from flights in claims made about the airport’s “green growth”. Flights currently make up more than 80% of the airport’s total emissions. The campaigners have asked the ad watchdog to suspend the ads pending investigation given the political timing of the misleading adverts, which were seen on the London tube network and in the magazine the New Statesman, which is widely read by policymakers. 

Robbie Gillett from Badvertising said:  “We are stuck in a dangerous logic that airports ‘must expand to meet a growth in demand’ but that growth is being driven, in part, by advertising encouraging us to fly. 

”Stating that ‘people are always going to fly’ is like saying ‘people are always going to smoke cigarettes’. We have intervened in the past to stop advertising for tobacco in order to reduce demand - so too should we remove the constant calls to buy more flights.”

Art design by Michelle Tylicki. Photo credit: Brandalism.