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In a landmark decision reported in the BBC, Guardian, Business Green and Campaign, the UK ad watchdog has banned adverts for London Luton Airport for misleading the public over the climate impacts of its proposed expansion from 18 million to 32 million passengers per year.
The ruling raises questions about the validity of Luton Airport’s ‘Green Growth Controlled Framework’, which has been central to the airport’s marketing of its expansion during a lengthy public consultation over its growth plans.
The banned ads promoted the airport’s expansion plans, saying “If we miss our environmental limits, our expansion will be stopped in its tracks”; but these limits failed to include emissions from flights – which would be by far the greatest source of additional emissions if the airport’s expansion were approved.
Luton Airport’s ‘green growth’ advertising is a house of cards that immediately collapses under scrutiny… The ASA’s ban underlines how advertising is pushing us in the wrong direction.
Veronica Wignall, Adfree Cities Codirector
The ban spotlights the role of advertising and greenwash in driving demand for flying as the aviation industry fails to decarbonise – Adfree Cities is calling for a tobacco-style ban on advertising for highly polluting industries, including aviation, fossil fuels and SUVs – a step recently taken by Edinburgh and Sheffield Councils.
This is the first time the ASA has banned airport ads for making false green claims, after complaints made by Adfree Cities, Badvertising, the Stay Grounded network, climate charity Possible and a number of local airport expansion opposition groups.
Veronica Wignall, codirector at Adfree Cities said: “Luton Airport’s “green growth” advertising is a house of cards that immediately collapses under scrutiny. Airport expansion is the extreme opposite of “green”, and sure enough, Luton has failed to include emissions from flights in its environmental accounting. This level of deception is totally shocking – it’s like advertising cigarettes as healthy.”
“The ASA’s ban underlines how advertising is pushing us in the wrong direction – we need to end greenwashing, stop airport expansion and make sustainable ways of travelling like rail and public transport more affordable. We’re calling for a tobacco-style ban on polluting advertising, as a logical step to support real progress on these goals.”
Andrew Labourne from local campaign group Luton And District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (LADACAN) said: “This is a great decision – local people are sick of the spin from Luton Rising which tries to greenwash their plans for massive expansion of Luton Airport. There is overwhelming rejection of the noise blight, traffic chaos, carbon emissions and loss of green space it would cause.”
The ads for Luton Airport Ltd, which rebranded as Luton Rising in 2021, appeared in the New Statesman, on Meta and on billboard posters across the TfL network in March-May 2024.
In its ruling, the ASA said the purpose of the ads, made by agency Hope, was “to reassure people about the efforts being taken to mitigate the environmental impacts caused by expansion”, and that people would expect emissions from additional flights to be included in these efforts. The watchdog also ruled that the imagery of an aeroplane taxiing on a runway added to this impression.
However, the watchdog noted that aircraft emissions are not included in the environmental standards promoted in the expansion ads, despite already making up more than 80% of Luton’s greenhouse gas emissions – a figure that does not include non-CO2 emissions, such as soot particles, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and water contrails, which can triple the global warming effect of flights.
Read more in Adfree Cities' blog: https://adfreecities.org.uk/2024/07/luton-airport-expansion-ads-banned-for-greenwashing/
Read the ASA's ruling: https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/london-luton-airport-ltd.html
