Car giant Ford has been given the green light to “keep calm and carry on” advertising its All-Electric Explorer model as offering “zero-emissions driving” following an investigation by the ad watchdog into potential “greenwashing”.
The probe is part of a wider crackdown on zero-emissions claims being conducted by the Advertising Standards Authority, which uses AI to proactively search for online ads that might break the rules.
The strategy has already whacked a number of major brands, including BMW, MG Motors, Anglian Water, Shell and Etihad Airways, since April last year.
Like the other potential miscreants, the Ford ad was identified for investigation following intelligence gathered by the regulator’s Active Ad Monitoring system, despite no official complaints.
The spot in question is running as a paid for Google ad for Ford and features the claim: “New All-Electric Explorer – Redefining Adventure. The ultimate all-electric SUV is here. The Explorer. Redefine the meaning of adventure. The ultimate exploration vehicle – Find out more & discover the range of features. Zero-emissions driving. Fast charging. Driver Assistance Tech.”
However, the ASA challenged whether the claim “zero-emissions driving” misleadingly represented the vehicle’s environmental impact and rifled off its objections to the car giant.
In response, Ford explained that the ad specifically stated “driving” and therefore was not a statement that the All-Electric Explorer was a zero-emissions vehicle in absolute terms. It explained that there was a clear distinction between its claim “zero-emissions driving” and an absolute claim such as “zero-emissions [vehicle name]”.
Ford said the latter could be interpreted as an absolute claim encompassing the life cycle of the vehicle (including production, driving, charging and maintenance). However, its claim “zero-emissions driving” explicitly and specifically stated that it was in relation to “driving”.
The company further stated that the claim had been made in the wider context of the ad, specifically the text, “Find out more & discover the range of features. Zero-emissions driving. Fast charging. Driver Assistance Tech”.
Ford maintained the text made clear that charging was another key element of the vehicle’s capabilities. Therefore, the context made it clear to consumers that there were other elements to the vehicle’s capabilities, beyond driving, such as charging, and the “zero-emissions” claim was made specifically in relation to driving.
Even so, Ford said that to make future ads even clearer, future ads would be amended to state “zero-emissions while driving”.
In its ruling, the watchdog said that the claim “zero-emissions driving” in isolation was ambiguous because it could be interpreted as an absolute claim, a comment on the emissions resulting from the vehicle through its life cycle, including for example, its manufacture, use and disposal.
Even so, as the ad had immediately followed the text with references to “Fast charging” and “Driver Assistance Tech”, this placed the claim in the context of some of the specific features of the car, which included its emissions while being driven, its charging capability and technical function.
Ruling that the claim was unlikely, therefore, in that specific context to be understood as a comment on the vehicle’s overall life-cycle (manufacture, use and disposal) emissions, it cleared the ad for future use, ruling that no further action was necessary.
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