An commercial by Australia’s fuel foyer has been taken off the airwaves after it was discovered to mislead viewers with environmental claims.
The tv marketing campaign, aired in June and run by the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), claimed pure fuel is “50 per cent cleaner” and “together with renewables it gets emissions down”.
A criticism to Australia’s promoting watchdog argued that though fuel was “scientifically slightly less bad” than another coal and oil power sources, the blanket assertion of “50 per cent cleaner” was unacceptable.
“It is a blanket and misleading statement that gas is ‘green’, when in truth the exploration, extraction, transport, processing and logistics of gas are very damaging to the environment and emit a lot of greenhouse gas – especially methane,” the complainant mentioned.
The watchdog, Ad Standards, upheld the criticism in a ruling final month.
A group panel of Ad Standards discovered the industrial breached the promoting code for environmental claims by making an unclear comparability with coal.
The fuel foyer had defended its advert and certified the declare with two experiences.
“The panel considered that the ’50 per cent cleaner’ claim was not clearly stated in either report with supporting evidence and without the use of qualifiers,” the panel’s resolution mentioned.
“As such, the advertiser had not provided supporting evidence with sufficient detail to allow the evaluation of the claim.”
APPEA, which represents Australia’s upstream oil and fuel business and has greater than 60 member firms, mentioned it disagreed with the decision.
“APPEA believes the advertising was clear, factual and does not agree with the community panel findings,” its chief government Samantha McCulloch informed AAP on Friday.
Ms McCulloch mentioned the actual fact fuel produces round 50 per cent much less carbon dioxide emissions than coal when used for energy era is supported by strong worldwide and Australian analysis.
The foyer group finally agreed to replace a few of their marketing campaign materials “out of respect for the decision and the process”.
It has now been referred to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for allegedly airing false or deceptive statements relating to the relative greenhouse fuel emissions of coal and fuel.
Lock the Gate spokesman Nic Clyde mentioned that at a time when Australians have to again renewable power, the foyer group has chosen to “double-down on their promotion of fossil gas”.
Environmental Defenders Office lawyer Kirsty Ruddock mentioned the commercial was “designed to make the public think gas is good for the environment, when in fact it is driving dangerous climate change”.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
