The Belgian self-regulatory body for advertising “JEP” (Jury for fair advertising practices) rendered a decision about an advertisement for an SUV.
The advertiser was an international car manufacturer, who introduced his new SUV model to the public, by showing a picture of it on a billboard. The surface behind and around the SUV model was entirely green and was composed by vertically growing plants.
A consumer filed a complaint with the Jury against the car manufacturer, accusing him of greenwashing. According to the consumer, the polluting car (which was not an electric vehicle) was presented (in the advertisement) in an utterly green environment, in the hope that the consumer would associate the car with an environmentally friendly means of transportation.
The Jury rejected the complaint, stating that the green environment in the advertisement points out that the car can be used off-road. The advertiser does not claim that the car has a positive effect on the environment and the public will not believe that advertiser is offering an environmentally friendly car. The decision of the Jury is available online in French: https://www.jep.be/fr/decisions-des-jep/land-rover-12-06-2023/ and in Dutch: https://www.jep.be/beslissingen/land-rover-12-06-2023/
This case shows that one can raise an ethical question about a car manufacturer offering for sale a not-so-green SUV in a completely green environment, but from a legal point of view, such advertising might not be misleading. Consumers know that presenting a car in a green environment does not necessarily mean that the car itself is “green”.
For more information on sustainability claims and greenwashing in Belgium please see here.
