
Revealed: How Car and Airline Advertising ‘Misleads’ the Public and Threatens Climate Action – desmog.com
Rachel Sherrington
Major car and airline companies are using adverts that greenwash their business while continuing to push highly polluting products that put the world’s climate goals at risk, DeSmog can reveal.
A DeSmog investigation, commissioned by Greenpeace Netherlands, analysed more than a thousand Facebook and Instagram adverts placed by ten well-known European transport brands in the last year.
The analysis found that car companies – Peugeot, Renault, Citroën, Fiat and Jeep – are touting “green” products and initiatives in the majority of their advertising while simultaneously using ads to push highly polluting vehicles such as SUVs.
The car firms promoted battery-powered cars and hybrids in over two thirds of their adverts. This low-carbon image is out of step with the reality of fleet production figures – both current and projected – which reveal a business model wedded to sales of fossil-fuel powered vehicles.