Environmental complaints

Ms FitzGerald made this Freedom of Information request to Advertising Standards Authority
This authority is not subject to FOI law, so is not legally obliged to respond (details).
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Dear Advertising Standards Authority,

I would like a breakdown in the number of complaints made to the agency about environmental claims each year between January 2009 to January 2013.

For example, complaints about misleading claims of products being "sustainable", "organic",'eco-friendly', and 'carbon-neutral' etc.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Ms FitzGerald

Dear Advertising Standards Authority,

In connection to my earlier request 'Environmental Complaints', I would also like to request details of the complaints made, and not simply the number of complaints received. For example, what terms did the complaint relate to and why did they believe it was misleading.

Thank you very much.

Yours faithfully,

Ms FitzGerald

Enquiries, Advertising Standards Authority

Dear Ms FitzGerald

We are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act but we always try to respond to enquiries and help where we can.

Further to your queries I have conducted a search on our database using the terms you have referenced.

In 2009 we received 1,109 complaints about 183 ads where the environment was mentioned.

In 2010 we received 500 complaints about 145 ads.

In 2011 we received 188 complaints about 157 ads.

In 2012 we received 131 complaints about 102 ads.

Breaking it down into subcategories of complaints under the search term "environment":

In 2009 we received 13 complaints about 5 ads where "sustainable" was referenced as part of the complaint.

In 2010 we received 13 complaints about 5 ads.

In 2011 we received 9 complaints about 6 ads.

In 2012 we received 8 complaints about 6 ads.

In 2009 we received 6 complaints about 4 ads where "organic" was referenced as part of the complaint.

In 2010 we received 3 complaints about 3 ads.

In 2011 we received 2 complaints about 2 ads.

In 2012 we received 0 complaints.

In 2009 we received 17 complaints about 10 ads where 'environmentally friendly" was referenced as part of the complaint.

In 2010 we received 16 complaints about 11 ads.

In 2011 we received 8 complaints about 8 ads.

In 2012 we received 13 complaints about 10 ads.

In 2009 we received 4 complaints about 4 ads where "carbon neutral" was referenced as part of the complaint.

In 2010 we received 2 complaints about 2 ads.

In 2011 we received 4 complaints about 4 ads.

In 2012 we received 0 complaints.

I have passed on your request for a breakdown of the details of the complaints to our IT team as this will involve running a report and compiling it into spreadsheet. We'll get that to you as soon as possible so that you can go through the 2,000 complaints and, where there was a formal ASA investigation, find that ruling on our website.

Kind regards

Matt Wilson

Matt Wilson
Press Officer
Direct line 020 7492 2122

Advertising Standards Authority
Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn
London WC1V 6QT
Telephone 020 7492 2222
www.asa.org.uk

Follow us on twitter: @ASA_UK

Legal, decent, honest and truthful

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Dear Enquiries,

Thank you for this information. I look forward to receiving the fuller breakdown.

Yours sincerely,

Ms FitzGerald

Enquiries, Advertising Standards Authority

1 Attachment

Dear Ms FitzGerald

Further to our correspondence, we have compiled a spreadsheet of all the complaints to the ASA between 2009 - 2013 where the environment was referenced.

This includes a short summary of the nature of the complaints that we received.

Here is a guide to the definition of some of the terms that appear in the 'final outcome' column (most will be self-explanatory):

OR = outside remit
Suppression = removing peoples’ personal data off mailing lists
EASA = European Advertising Standards Alliance

Where a case was formally investigated you will be able to find the details of the ruling in full on our website by putting the advertiser's name into the search facility on our rulings page.

I hope this information helps out.

Kind regards

Matt Wilson

Matt Wilson
Press Officer
Direct line 020 7492 2122

Advertising Standards Authority
Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn
London WC1V 6QT
Telephone 020 7492 2222
www.asa.org.uk

Follow us on twitter: @ASA_UK

Legal, decent, honest and truthful

show quoted sections