ASA Adjudication on Scottish and Southern Energy plc

Ad

A TV ad, for Southern Electric, had a voiceover that stated "Ever feel like you could have chosen better? Yes, it really is greener on the other side. At Southern Electric we're the UK's number one for greener energy and we're putting our energies into supporting local communities and grassroots sport. You can't better that. Come on over … Southern Electric. Energy made better". Onscreen text stated "UK's number 1 for greener energy based on the Fuel Mix Disclosure of the 6 major suppliers, year ending March 2007. Source: www.energywatch.org.uk".

Issue

British Gas (BG), who acknowledged that the Fuel Mix Disclosure showed that Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) had the highest proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources, objected that the ad misleadingly implied that SSE had the lowest CO2 emissions for the electricity they generated.

BCAP TV Code

Response

SSE said, although the ad mentioned green energy, they were not making a statement about CO2 emissions.  They asserted that there was a clear link between the perception of green energy and renewable generation and not between the perception of green energy and the low carbon electricity generated from nuclear sources.  They said the term green in the energy field meant more than just low carbon because there were other factors to consider when looking at environmental impact.

SSE said all suppliers were required to publish information about the mix of fuels used to generate the electricity supplied to customers and its environmental impact. They said nuclear was clearly highlighted as a separate generation type on the fuel mix disclosure and was not a renewable product.  They believed the issue was therefore whether the industry, or consumers, considered nuclear generation to be green.  They argued that nobody looking at the fuel mix disclosure table would assume that green referred to the total of both renewable and nuclear.

SSE referred to the current Ofgem guidelines which gave definitions of what constituted green energy and, they believed, at no point described nuclear generation as being green. They also said The Carbon Trust stated that green energy was that generated from renewable sources and Friends of the Earth omitted nuclear from their description of green energy.

SSE said, in January 2008, Ofgem commissioned a research study called Consumers Views on Renewable and Low carbon Supply Tariffs. They said that research supported their view that consumers did not believe nuclear to be green.  SSE said, although nuclear was low carbon, it was not a green product and they stood by their claim that they were the UKs number one for greener energy.

Clearcast said they recognised that there were many contributing factors in making green claims, one of which was CO2 emissions, but believed there was also an overall picture to consider.  They said, through repeated discussion and consideration of the script they were happy that the claim was valid; to avoid any potential confusion, they had been careful to avoid any reference to CO2.  They believed, because there was no mention of CO2 in the ad, it was clear that the claim was not being made in that context.  They said a lot of advertisers were currently establishing their green credentials in terms of CO2 emissions so viewers were familiar with that sort of claim; the ad made no claims in the context of CO2 emissions and they therefore concluded that the viewer would not assume that was how the claim was being made.

They said they had ensured that if a customer wanted to examine the terms of the claim further they would be able to do so from the onscreen text.   They believed the inclusion of that information enabled any viewer to go and check how the claim had been calculated and could see that the claim was made in terms of renewable energy and not CO2 emissions.

Clearcast believed the fact that the only complaint received was from a competitor leant further weight to their belief that the ad had not mislead the public in anyway.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted SSE and Clearcasts responses. We also noted the Fuel Mix Disclosure table included the CO2 emissions of energy suppliers. We noted the ad made no specific mention of CO2 emissions and recognised that CO2 was not the only measure of green energy, but nevertheless considered that the ad did not make sufficiently clear the basis of the claim. We considered that the claim "UK's number one for greener energy" was ambiguous and that viewers could understand from the claim that SSE had the lowest CO2 emissions; we noted the onscreen text stated "UK's number 1 for greener energy based on the Fuel Mix Disclosure of the 6 major suppliers, year ending March 2007. Source: www.energywatch.org.uk" but considered that that did not make clear that the claim was based on the proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources rather than CO2 emissions. We considered that the onscreen text was unlikely to clarify the meaning to the average viewer and that they could therefore understand the claim was based on CO2 emissions. We concluded that the ad was likely to mislead viewers.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence), 5.2.2 (Implications), 5.2.6 (Environmental claims) and 5.4.6. (Comparative advertising).

Action

The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)