Shell's advert misleading
friends of the earth international
media advisory
for immediate release: thursday 5th july 2007
oil giant shell told to stop "greenwashing"
Dutch Advertising Authority accepts Friends of the Earth complaint against misleading advert
AMSTERDAM
(THE NETHERLANDS), July 5th - The Dutch Advertising Authority has
instructed oil giant Shell to stop misleading the public, after Friends
of the Earth Netherlands filed a complaint against a “greenwash”
advertisement that claimed that Shell uses its waste carbon dioxide to
grow flowers.[1]
The advertisement, published in a number of
newspapers and magazines in April and May 2007, depicted a refinery
emitting flowers from its chimneys instead of smoke.[2] The Dutch
Advertising Authority confirmed that this was a misrepresentation,
since only a tiny proportion of Shell's total carbon dioxide emissions
is piped into greenhouses. Friends of the Earth Netherlands /
Milieudefensie was informed of this on July 4th.
Anne van
Schaik, campaign leader of the Globalisation Department at Friends of
the Earth Netherlands / Milieudefensie said: 'Instead of greenwashing
its environmental behaviour, Shell should tackle its real problems. For
instance, in Nigeria, gas flaring by Shell causes 60 times more
greenhouse gas emissions than the carbon dioxide that is reused by
Dutch farmers to grow flowers.”
Shell also claimed in the advert that it uses its `waste sulphur to
make concrete'. The Dutch Advertising Authority also qualified this
claim as misleading because this could be interpreted as applying to
all of the waste sulphur generated by Shell. In reality, a major part
of Shell's sulphur waste is used for fuel for sea ships and is finally
released in the air. Sea ships are one of the biggest sources of
sulphur dioxide pollution.
The Shell advertisement appeared in
several western European countries. In England and Belgium, Friends of
the Earth filed similar complaints. In England the case is still
pending, but in Belgium the claim was rejected by the Advertisement
Authority.
Paul de Clerck, head of the Corporates campaign of Friends of the
Earth International said: “In the advertisement Shell used strongly
misleading environmental claims. The fact that the Belgium
Advertisement Authority didn't see any problems clearly underlines the
need for strict European-wide rules to prevent greenwashing
advertisements by multinational companies such as Shell.”
for more information:
Paul
de Clerck, head of the Corporates campaign of Friends of the Earth
International, tel: +32-494-380959 (Belgian mobile number)
Anne
van Schaik, campaign leader of the Globalisation Department at Friends
of the Earth Netherlands / Milieudefensie, tel: +31-6-29593877
Friends of the Earth Netherlands / Milieudefensie
Press office: +31-20-5507333
notes:
[1] More information about the complaint can be found at: http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2007/May8_PDC_Shell_advert.htm
[2] The Shell advertisement can be found at Shell's website:
