Innocent guilty as watchdog chews up greenwashing ad

Innocent Drinks has been battered over an ad campaign, devised by Mother London, which has been found to have over-exaggerated the company’s environmental claims in a classic case of “greenwashing”.

The activity, dubbed “Little drinks, big dreams” first launched in May 2021 and featured animated characters signing a song with the lyrics: “We’re messing up the planet. We’re messing up real good. And filling up our bodies with more beige food than we should…”

The animation showed images of buildings and vehicles expelling pollutants, litter, dirty rivers and brown unappetising food. The song continued: “We’re messing around with nature, we’re messing up the sea …”, accompanied by images of litter being thrown into water, while a number of people and an otter sailed along the water in a boat.

Just as the boat reached a waterfall, which it was about to sail over, the otter stopped it from moving and said, “Woah, what are we doing?”

One of the people in the boat, who was holding a guitar, said, “Singing a song about our impending doom.” The otter responded, “Yeah, and you’re egging them on with the …” and the man with the guitar interrupted him and said with realisation “With the guitar and everything, I know.”

The otter said, “Ok, let’s try this instead”, then produced a guitar and sang, “Let’s get fixing up the planet. Fix it up real good…” The animation changed to a greener and more colourful colour scheme, and included images of trees being planted. The song continued, “Be kinder to our bodies with nature’s tasty food…”, accompanied by images of fruit being squeezed into an Innocent drinks bottle.

The song concluded, “Reduce. Re-use. Recycle. Because there is no planet B. If we’re looking after nature she’ll be looking after me”, accompanied by images of people taking leisure in a lush green environment, with many of them alongside bottles of Innocent drinks. At the end of the ad, a voice-over stated, “Innocent. Little drinks with big dreams for a healthier planet.”

But not everyone was convinced by these claims and the ad received 26 complaints regarding its environmental message, including one from a Plastics Rebellion representative, that questioned whether the ad exaggerated the products’ total environmental benefit.

In response to the Advertising Standards Authority investigation, Innocent claimed the ad was simply a call to action that invited people to work towards a healthier planet and that there was no suggestion through statements or imagery that purchasing an Innocent product would lead to a positive environmental impact.

The company went on to insist it aims to recycle 70% of its bottles by 2023. The brand also pointed out that the ad concluded with text saying: “Find out more – innocentdrinks.co.uk”, which would lead people to information about the sustainability schemes in which Innocent was participating.

However, in its ruling the ASA said: “The ad firstly presented a depiction of a damaged planet and brown food. It then switched to imagery of the planet being ‘fixed up’ whilst Innocent drinks are being consumed alongside images of Innocent products, depicting people and animals relaxing in a green environment.

“We considered that this implied there was a direct association between choosing Innocent drinks and taking positive action to help the environment.”

ASA ruled that Innocent’s products did not have a net positive environmental impact over their full life cycles. “Because the ads implied that purchasing Innocent products was a choice which would have a positive environmental impact when that was not the case we concluded that the ads were misleading.”

Banning the ad from appearing again in that form, the watchdog also warned Innocent that future activity must not mislead consumers as to the total environmental benefit of its products.