Greenwashing Watchdogs
Once the mainstay of all “do-good” companies, is its usefulness coming to an end?
Advertising watchdogs in the U.K. are clamping down on greenwashing. For white-hat marketers, this is terrific news!
It is easy to greenwash—or deliver false information or a misleading impression that a company’s policies or products are environmentally friendly or sustainable. Just ask Chevron. Hopefully—as legal teams step in—we will have to compete against those PR-fueled, all-talk interlopers less and less.
Given how marketing and advertising influences consumer behavior, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ramped up its regulation of environmental and social responsibility-related claims. The group has been meting out fines and penalties after investigations for using claims that are misleadingly vague about their basis, lack adequate supporting evidence, or make overarching ‘absolute’ claims.
As marketers, we can all learn from Unilever's recent punishment for using previously common claims like "greener" or "friendlier."
Persil: Kinder to our Planet?
In August 2022, a viewer challenged “kinder to our planet” claims in a Persil TV ad as misleading and asked for substantiation. The ASA investigated the complaint and came down hard.
While the ad had been in circulation since March 2022, it was an extension of its wildly successful “Dirt is good” campaign that launched in 2020. Today, the ad has been removed from all channels.
For more context, here is an overview:
Open to a beach strewn with litter and plastic, and then a boy viewing that image on a TV.
Voiceover: “At Persil, we know that change doesn’t just happen in the comments section.”
Cut to a woman writing “#plantmoretrees,” scrolling through social media, and clicking “Sad.”
Cut to children collecting plastic litter from rivers and ocean waves on a beach, followed by a shot of muddy hands and a boy in a boat wiping his hands on his t-shirt.
Voiceover: “For real change, we all need to roll up our sleeves and get dirty. That’s why Persil deeply penetrates the fibers of clothes to remove tough stains the first time, even in a quick or cold wash and our bottles are made with recycled plastic.” Below—in smaller font—“*Excludes cap & label.”
Cut to close-up shots of dirt being washed from fabrics. The ad then pans back to clothes in a washing machine with on-screen text: “REMOVES STAINS AT 30ºC.”
Cut to a Persil bottle falling into water with on-screen text, “60 minutes quick wash.”
Cut to a moving conveyor belt filled with crushed plastic pieces with on-screen text, “MADE WITH 50% RECYCLED PLASTIC” and below in smaller font “*Excludes cap & label.”
Voiceover: “Tough on stains, kinder to our planet. Dirt is good.”
Cut to children in sunlit outdoor scenes running through white sheets hanging to dry and then a field with trees, with reinforcing on-screen text stating, “TOUGH ON STAINS, KINDER TO OUR PLANET”.
Final image: Three Persil bottles with text alongside an ‘Aloe Vera’ bottle stating “NEW,” and text at the bottom of the screen stating, “DIRT IS GOOD.”
The spin
Unilever said that action was needed to effect change and reduce our collective impact on the environment. The ad educated consumers on the urgency for action and then showcased how Persil continually improved its products to be kinder to the planet.
Unilever also claimed that the Persil ad demonstrated how their liquid detergents were “Kinder to our planet” by saving energy through cleaning at lower temperatures and in quick washes and using 50% recycled plastic.
The proof points to its claims:
Persil detergents have proven to remove tough stains in a cold and quick wash the first time—with no need to re-wash—including at 30°C in a 60-minute wash cycle. Thus, the ad promoted washing at lower temperatures, which uses 38% less energy.
Persil plastic bottles contained at least 50% post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR), keeping more plastic out of landfills.
The recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) that the bottles were made of had a lower carbon dioxide equivalent per kg of resin compared with virgin HDPE plastic.
As part of Unilever's Clean Future program to eliminate fossil fuels and ensure net zero carbon emissions in cleaning products by 2030, Persil liquid detergents were formulated with lower dose volumes and higher concentrations and significantly reduced their use of plastic.
The opening scenes showing children collecting plastic waste were a visual reference to Unilever’s ‘Dirt is Good’ project, aiming to engage and inspire children aged 6-13 years to consider climate issues and care for the environment.
The ruling: Misleading advertising
The ad is banned from appearing again in its current form and has been stripped from YouTube.
The ASA found ruled that the ad breached its codes on misleading advertising, substantiation, and environmental claims. The regulation requires that marketers include relevant information in ads or signpost on how the underlying data can be checked by the target audience.
The advertising watchdog said Persil had failed to make clear its “kinder to our planet” claim and penalized it for lacking evidence that proved the entire life cycle of the liquid was more sustainable than its previous product.
The ruling was a PR nightmare, with articles galore. Moreover, it put a smear on Unilever’s “Dirt is good.” campaign. I’m watching closely to see how their claims change moving forward.
Edelman