The global advertising industry has revised its code of ethics to
highlight the dangers of making claims about a company’s social and
environmental credentials. The code, produced for the industry by
the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), now says that
advertising and marketing communications should not contain ‘any
statement or visual treatment likely to mislead consumers in any way
about the environmental aspects or advantages of products, or about
actions being taken by the marketer in favour of the environment’.
Vague or ‘non-specific’ claims of environmental benefit should be made
‘only if they are valid, without qualification, in all reasonably
foreseeable circumstances’, an eight-page section in the code says.
Phrases such as ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘ecologically safe’
should not be used unless a ‘very high’ standard of proof is available.
The code also says marketing materials should use findings on the
environmental impacts of a product or a company only if backed by
reliable scientific evidence. The ICC has added the new section to
satisfy growing concerns about ‘greenwash’ advertising claims. These
came to public attention last month in the UK when the Advertising
Standards Authority threatened a tough line on companies that make
unsupportable claims about their social and environmental performance.
The warning came after the authority told the energy company Scottish
& Southern Energy to withdraw a leaflet sent to customers claiming
its tree-planting scheme would absorb carbon dioxide equal to that
created by households signed up to its green electricity tariff. The
authority said its investigations, which took evidence from the
company, found the claim lacked substance.
The company said it was proud of its environmental record but added
that it would make sure ‘future material … will be even clearer and
easier to understand’. The ruling could have implications for the
increasing number of companies claiming to be ‘carbon-neutral’.
One part of the code covers social responsibility, stating that all
marketing communications ‘should respect human dignity and should not
incite or condone any form of discrimination’.
Another says companies thinking of entering into sponsorship agreements
should first consider the potential social or environmental impact of
any deal – and that any sponsorship message based on a claim of
positive social or environmental impact ‘should be substantiated in
terms of actual benefits to be obtained’.
In a section with a particular obesity message for food companies, it
says advertising to children ‘should not undermine positive social
behaviour or lifestyles’.
The ICC says the new streamlined code is intended to set ‘a high
ethical standard that is well beyond any legal requirements’ and to
take into account recent developments in electronic media and
telemarketing as well as ‘green advertising claims’. The ICC
International Code of Advertising Practice was first drawn up in 1937.
This is its eighth revision.
