The German airline group Lufthansa was called to order on Wednesday by the British advertising authority (Advertising Standards Authority, ASA) for an advertisement in which it claimed to "protect the future
"
of the planet, which "
gave an impression misleading of the environmental impact
" of the company.
“
We considered that this statement was likely to be understood by consumers to mean that Lufthansa had already taken significant mitigating measures to ensure that the net environmental impact of its activity was not detrimental,”
says the ASA in its decision.
The advertisement in question shows an airplane in flight seen from the front, the lower half of which is replaced by an image of the earth photographed from space, with a link to a website and the words: “Connecting the world
.
Protect its future.
According to the ASA, this poster was visible last June.
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A “misleading impression of environmental impact”
Here is the Lufthansa advert pinned down by the UK Advertising Authority.
Lufthansa
Air travel "
produces high levels of CO2 and other emissions, which contribute substantially to climate change
", according to the ASA, noting that many of the climate initiatives put forward by Lufthansa will only "
deliver results in years or decades
.
The German company, which is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 and intends to halve its CO2 emissions by 2030 (compared to 2019), will now have to "ensure that
its future environmental claims are based on a clear basis and do not give a misleading impression of the
environmental impact” of air travel, writes the regulator.
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In France, a precedent with the SNCF
Asked by AFP, the Lufthansa group (which also includes Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines) said Wednesday "
regret
" that this advertisement "
could give a misleading impression
".
During the procedure conducted by the ASA, Lufthansa had indicated to the regulator that, from its point of view, the advertisement could not be understood as "
an absolute promise (...) that its services do not cause any damage to the environment", but that it would rather be seen as a way "to attract people to the website to make them aware of environmental issues
".
This decision recalls, in France, the opinion delivered in December 2022 by the Advertising Ethics Jury (JDP) concerning a poster campaign by the SNCF stating that "Travelling by
high-speed train is 50 times less CO² emitted than for a trip by car and 80 times less than by plane
”.
Seized by the National Federation of Aviation and its Trades (Fnam), the JDP considered that the allegation "
80 times a month
" misled the public and "
did not reflect the reality of the respective performances of the train and the 'aircraft in terms of CO² emissions
'.
The SNCF was invited to bring more nuance in its advertisements, in particular by adding the precision "on average".
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