ASA rules on Lloyds ads green claims

The ASA has published its ruling in relation to 4 challenges brought in relation to a poster and three paid-for LinkedIn posts from Lloyds. It upheld 1 of the challenges only:

• in relation to the poster, this showed a person in a seaweed packaging factory with a statement that good things were happening at that business and bearing some Lloyds Bank Business wording;
• the first LinkedIn post showed a countryside scene with text that Lloyds was partnering with Projects for Nature to support nature recovery;
• the second post had the same image and longer text explaining that Lloyds’ funding would help to protect the natural environment and explaining the three projects it would support; and
• the last post asked what Lloyds were doing to help accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy, with a further caption viewable when clicked on a “see more” button explaining what Lloyds is doing to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Adfree Cities said the ads were misleading because they omitted significant information about Lloyds’ contribution of CO2 and GHG emissions.

The ASA upheld the challenge only in relation to the last ad. It found the first ad would be reasonably understood to be an example of how Lloyds supported businesses to develop, rather than being an example of Lloyds green business financing more generally. The second and third ads featured the Lloyds and the Projects for Nature logos equally prominently and alongside each other and, again, readers would understand that Lloyds had donated to Projects for Nature to support nature recovery projects and that they were making only a limited claim about the bank’s contribution to the platform. But on the last ad, the ASA thought they readers would understand that Lloyds was taking steps to use renewable energy and reduce energy consumption, but the ad also make wider claims about the bank’s financing or clean and renewable energy, including by helping its customers become more sustainable. The ASA thought the claim to be putting the “weight” of its finance into renewable energy did, in the absence of qualifying information, and the message from the video embedded in the ad, give the general impression that renewable energy formed a significant proportion of Lloyds’ investments and the businesses it finances. According to the bank’s latest sustainability report, however, it was continuing significant financing for businesses and industries that emit notable levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. The ASA said that was material information that should have been made clear, and that omitting it made the ad misleading. The ASA told Lloyds that the ad could not appear again in the form complained of and any further ads must put any claims into their proper context.