Lufthansa Climate Ad Banned in UK for Greenwashing

An ad by the Lufthansa Group has been banned in the UK after it was found to mislead consumers over the airline’s carbon emissions reduction efforts.

The ad in question was released last May with the tagline: “Connecting the World. Protecting its Future. #MakeChangeFly.” It was part of a campaign by Lufthansa to promote its efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, including using more low-emission sustainable aviation fuels, and buying more fuel efficient aircraft.

However, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority found Wednesday that the ad, which did not include any specific details of Lufthansa’s decarbonization efforts, was “ambiguous and not clearly linked to the environment,” and could mislead consumers.

“The tagline … was open to interpretation, but in conjunction with the imagery it would not be understood as an absolute promise about their service, especially one linked to the environment, that their services caused no harm to the environment,” the advertising regulator said.

In its defense, Lufthansa told the authority that the ad was not intended to be taken in isolation and included a hyperlink to a website that outlined its decarbonization efforts.

The Advertising Standards Authority found that the ad violated UK law after it “concluded that, because the basis of the claim had not been made clear and it had not been adequately substantiated.”