Energy company ATCO has breached the AANA Environmental Claims Code by making misleading and deceptive claims on a flyer distributed to households in Perth advertising natural gas.
The flyer said that natural gas is better for the environment and produces “70% less greenhouse gas”.
ATCO flyer via Ad Standards.
The complaint submitted to Ad Standards said:
"The world finds itself in the midst of an ecological and anthropomorphic climate emergency brought about by our use of fossil fuels... the fossil fuel industry has corrupted our governments and continues to peddle disinformation and lies. As to the specifics:
"1. Solar and wind energy is the cheapest form of energy today in Australia and internationally. The claim 'pay 58% less for hot water' is blatantly untrue;
"2.'Produce 70% less greenhouse gas' what is this being compared to? Again blatantly dishonest.
"3. Recently people compared cooking 1/2 litre of water on gas and on induction, demonstrating that induction is infinitely faster. And the energy can be provided 100% from renewables."
In response, the company refuted the complaint as they did not give evidence to support their claims and rather ATCO's flyer clearly stated references.
ATCO said: "the Complaint should be dismissed because, in addition to the baseless other allegations made in the Complaint, an average consumer who received the Flyer would not have been misled or deceived by the material, and the Flyer is not otherwise in breach of either of the Codes."
However, ATCO's references were outdated (from 2017).
Therefore, the Community Panel found the flyer misleading.
The Panel noted that its role is not to assess whether natural gas is a clean or green energy source, rather it is to assess whether the overall impression an average consumer would take from the advertisement.
The Panel considered that this claim is misleading as there are other energy sources which produce less greenhouse gas than natural gas.
As a result, the flyer has been removed from circulation and is no longer being distributed to households.
ATCO said they will take active steps to ensure this issue is not overlooked in future advertisements.
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