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AEROSPACE INDUSTRY BODY REFERS EUROTUNNEL AD TO ASA
6 November 2009
A|D|S claims that advert “unfairly targets aviation with no evidence to do so”
A|D|S, the UK’s AeroSpace, Defence and Security trade organisation today (Friday) announced that it has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about a Eurotunnel advertisement that has recently appeared in the national press. The advert is also available online at http://www.eurotunnel.com/NR/rdonlyres/B9B4AE9F-020F-41C2-8C98-1E80AF2F93D2/0/Guardian_BD.pdf.
The advert makes the claim that Eurotunnel is the most environmentally friendly way to cross the Channel by car using imagery to compare the train favourably to an aircraft and a ship. However, in the small print the ad concedes that the train has only been compared to ship transport. Furthermore, an aircraft today is 70 per cent more fuel-efficient that 50 years ago, with CO2 emissions reduced by the same amount, and cross-Channel travel by car is rarely, if at all, undertaken by air.
Ian Godden, Chairman of A|D|S, said:
“Aviation is often unfairly made to be the whipping boy when discussing the environment. However, the industry has made huge strides to meet rising demand while developing new aircraft designs and materials, technologies and systems to reduce its future impact on the environment. Presenting air travel unfairly in a manner such as this must not be allowed to go unchallenged.
“Aerospace manufacturers are delivering for our customers – the airlines – through these developments. Fuel is usually an airline’s second largest cost after staff and they therefore demand of us ever more fuel-efficient aircraft. Therefore, natural demand from our customers is focusing some of the brightest British minds on producing aircraft that produce much less CO2 than their predecessors and which also produce much less CO2 than cars, ships or power stations – that deliver the energy for Eurotunnel’s trains.
“We have therefore complained formally to the Advertising Standards Authority about this advert because of its misleading use of imagery. We hope that Eurotunnel will withdraw or edit it to remove its unfair and unfounded depiction of aviation.”
According to Sustainable Aviation’s Climate Facts information aviation is responsible for 5.5 per cent of UK CO2 emissions, compared to 24 per cent for road transport. Power generation is responsible for around 30 per cent. Globally shipping produces twice as much CO2 as aviation.
The A|D|S complaint says:
The Euro Tunnel advert claims that their service is the most environmentally friendly way to cross the Channel by car. The imagery in the advert has a full colour image of a train contrasted with a black and white image of a ship and aeroplane. In the small print of the advert it admits that the train has only been compared to the ship. Also, crossing the Channel by car rarely takes place by aeroplane.
We are therefore complaining that the Euro Tunnel advert unfairly targets aviation with no evidence to do so. With aviation in the UK making large efforts to reduce its environmental impact, for example the average aircraft in operation in the UK is as fuel-efficient as a hybrid car, plus the fact that travelling cross-Channel by car almost never involves an aircraft we would ask you to compel Euro Tunnel to remove the aircraft image from any future adverts of this nature.
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AEROSPACE INDUSTRY BODY REFERS EUROTUNNEL AD TO 
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