“planet-friendly” laundry ad banned as misleading

An advertisement for Persil washing powder, a brand of giant Unilever, which claimed to be “more respectful of the planet“, was deemed misleading by the British Advertising Authority (ASA), which banned Wednesday, August 31 its broadcast.

The regulator concluded in its ruling that this assertion was unclear and that the ad “could be misleading“, in particular for lack of demonstrating “that the complete life cycle of the product has a lower environmental impact compared to a previous formulation“. “The ad should no longer appear in its current form“, ruled the ASA, asking Unilever to ensure, in its next advertisements, that “the basis for the environmental claims is clear» and that these «are based on the full life cycle of the products, unless otherwise stated“.

“Disappointed with the decision”

The advertisement, visible at the beginning of the year on British television, notably depicted children picking up waste in rivers and on a beach. She claimed that this detergent, sold in partially recycled plastic bottles, was also effective at 30°C and with short cycles. The food and hygiene products giant Unilever told the ASA that these two characteristics were, in fact, more environmentally friendly, arguing in particular that lower temperature and shorter washes are less energy hungry.

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Nevertheless, “it was unclear whether these were new or recent developments and whether they were specific to laundry detergents“which were the subject of the advertisement”or whether they applied more broadly to the Persil product line“, according to the ASA. “We are disappointed with the decisionof the regulator, Unilever reacted on Wednesday in a statement sent to AFP, claiming to be “committed to making continuous improvements to (its) products to make them more sustainable“.

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A month ago, the British competition regulator announced that it was investigating a series of fashion brands like Boohoo or Asos, accused of being very polluting, to see if their environmental promises on certain products are misleading, because often unsubstantiated.