Virgin Atlantic has been accused of greenwashing in its advertising.
A Virgin Atlantic radio advertisement stated: “On the 28th of November, Virgin Atlantic’s Flight 100 will take to the skies on our unique flight mission from London Heathrow to JFK to become the world’s first commercial airline to fly transatlantic on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. When they said it was too difficult, we said: challenge accepted. Virgin Atlantic Flight 100. See the world differently.”
The advertisement prompted five complainants to take the matter to the UK’s Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) for giving a misleading impression of the fuel’s environmental impact, according to ASA.
Virgin Atlantic responded that the wording “100% sustainable aviation fuel” was a reference to the type of fuel being used, and did not suggest that the fuel completely eliminated greenhouse gases. Virgin believed the audience would understand this.
“The ad did not claim that the fuel was 100% sustainable, nor did it give a misleading impression about the absolute or relative environmental nature, impact or credentials of sustainable aviation fuel (as compared to other aviation fuel). Rather, it factually described how the flight was powered exclusively by sustainable aviation fuel,” the company responded.
ASA upheld the complaint that the advertising was unclear and misleading. “The ASA considered that while many listeners would understand from the ad that Flight 100 had, uniquely, flown transatlantic using only sustainable aviation fuel, a significant proportion would understand the claim ‘100% sustainable aviation fuel’ to mean that the fuel used was 100% sustainable,” the agency said.
Virgin has been warned by ASA not to produce any future advertisements with the same claim.
