Two Etihad Airways ads banned in UK over greenwashing claims
The Gulf carrier was accused of exaggerating climate claims by the British Advertising Standards Agency.
Emirati carrier Etihad Airways has had two advertisements blocked in the United Kingdom after the country’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the airline “exaggerated” the environmental benefits of flying with them.
The two ads in question were from October 2022 and published on the airline’s Facebook page.
The commercials claimed Etihad was “taking a louder, bolder approach to sustainable aviation” and touted its “Environmental Airline of the Year for 2022” accolade at the Airline Excellence Awards. One of the ads claimed Etihad was flying with a “smaller footprint” and cutting back on single-use plastics.
But the ASA, which regulates advertising in the UK, said on Wednesday that the airline gave no additional context on how “sustainable aviation” was being achieved and called the videos “misleading advertising.” The authority said that the airline broke the CAP Code, which requires environmental claims to be supported by a high level of substantiation.
