Grrrrr saab
August 16th, 2007
The latest Saab ad I think sums up nicely the dilemma we face. Here they are selling a car on the basis of good old grunt - grrrrrreen - in other words, let’s keep driving our cars really fast - with a shimmer of green.
The Australian Greens have taken the company to task for overstating their green credentials. Personally I am more annoyed that they are pushing the ‘lets drive fast message’ as part of the package. Good creative though!
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Saab warned to withdraw ‘greenwash’ ads or face legal challenge
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Brussels, 10 January 2008 - Swedish car manufacturer, Saab was today told to
stop portraying its cars as environmentally friendly or face legal action
for misleading advertising.
A summons [1], instigated by Friends of the Earth Europe and delivered by
bailiff to Saab’s Belgian office, calls on the company to remove all wording
and imagery from its website and brochures which associate its cars with
nature or the protection of the environment. It must also withdraw false
claims that driving a Saab reduces CO2 emissions.
Friends of the Earth Europe also highlights in the document that Saab does
not display the CO2 emissions or fuel consumption figures of its ‘Biopower’
engines on its website or in its brochures, which is a violation of Belgian
and European law.
The manufacturer has eight days to meet the demands, after which time
Friends of the Earth Europe will file legal proceedings complaining against
the company’s misleading advertising.
Jeroen Verhoeven, car efficiency campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe
said: “Saab is the latest carmaker to engage in ‘greenwash’ advertising
designed to enhance its green credentials. Instead of fooling consumers that
its cars don’t damage the environment, Saab should be making real efforts to
improve the fuel efficiency of its vehicles.”
The action by Friends of the Earth Europe follows a ruling in November last
year by the Belgian advertising standards authority (JEP) that Saab must
cease an advertisement campaign in which it claimed its ‘Biopower’ cars made
the roads, “finally turn green”. The JEP deemed that the wording was in
breach of the environmental advertisement code which forbids advertisers
from implying a product has no impact on the environment, unless the claims
can be proven.
Despite this ruling Saab has continued to claim on its website and in its
brochures that a car with a ‘Biopower’ engine will provide drivers with a
“clean conscience†about its environmental impact. Saab backs up this
assertion by stating that driving a car which runs on E85 - a blend of 85
per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol - will reduce its CO2 emissions by
80 per cent.
Friends of the Earth Europe argues that the advertising abuses consumer
concern for the environment and exploits possible lack of environmental
knowledge. Whether CO2 can be saved over the lifecycle of ethanol, and if so
by how much, is highly dependent on how the ethanol has been produced. As a
car manufacturer, Saab has no control over the origins and production
methods of ethanol available at the pump. Ethanol production has
wide-ranging negative environmental impacts such as increased water use and
land-use changes, and there are challenges in measuring life-cycle emissions
from ethanol. Consequently Saab cannot substantiate environmental claims
regarding ethanol use, and its statement that ethanol is environmentally
friendly is misleading.
“Saab is using ethanol as a green alibi to cover up the fact that it is
failing to significantly reduce the fuel consumption of it cars,” Mr
Verhoeven added.
Contrary to its claims, the environmental performance of Saab’s vehicles is
poor. According to official fuel consumption data, which is a key
determinant of how much CO2 cars release into the atmosphere, Saab cars rank
among the worst, rating from mediocre to very poor. [2]