The advert was banned as “the basis of the claims had not been made clear in the ads.”
A Ryanair advert has been banned in the UK for making misleading environmental claims.
In an advert aired in September of 2019, Ryanair claimed that it has the lowest carbon emissions of any major European airline.
In similar TV and radio adverts, it was said that the airline had “low CO2 emissions”, which resulted in a number of complaints being made to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).
The ASA has since ruled that Ryanair broke rules based on its environmental claims, and that customers could be misled as a result. The advert now must be changed, and can no longer air in its current form.
Ryanair argued that when comparing the global operations of four other major European airlines to its own, it performed the best, though there was no clear definition of what a major airline was.
Ryanair also said that when using the term “low CO2 emissions” in some of the ads, it meant “less than average”, and that this was clear to consumers.
The ASA said: “We told Ryanair Ltd to ensure that when making environmental claims, they held adequate evidence to substantiate them and to ensure that the basis of those claims were made clear.”
Speaking to JOE about the situation, Ryanair said: “We successfully ran this advertising message in 10 countries across Europe. We made minor adjustments to the advertising in the UK market at the request of the relevant approval bodies. We were surprised we had to make these small changes, as the message was approved in other markets and we provided all the supporting data they required.”
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