Watchdog bans Shell's ads for low-carbon products

The advertising watchdog has banned three Shell adverts promoting the energy giant’s low-carbon products for potentially misleading customers.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ads failed to make any mention of Shell’s ongoing ‘large-scale’ investment in oil and gas, which still comprises the vast majority of the company’s operations and turnover.

Shell said it strongly disagreed with the ASA’s decision, claiming consumers are ‘well aware’ that the company produces oil and gas, and the move could slow Britain’s renewable energy transition.

One of the ads in question is a poster carrying the Shell logo featuring large text stating ‘Bristol is Ready for Cleaner Energy’ and ‘In the South West 78,000 homes use 100 per cent renewable electricity from Shell Energy’.

Meanwhile, a TV ad said 1.4million households in the UK used 100 per cent renewable electricity from Shell.

It also mentioned that the firm was working on a wind project that could power six million homes and aimed to fit 50,000 electric car chargers nationwide by 2025.

Another ad – a video on Shell’s YouTube channel  – was captioned: ‘From electric vehicle charging to renewable electricity for your home, Shell is giving customers more low-carbon choices and helping drive the UK’s energy transition. The UK is ready for cleaner energy.’

Adfree Cities complained that the ads misled consumers by omitting significant information about the overall environmental impact of Shell’s business activities in 2022.

The ASA said Shell’s operations gave rise to greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 that were estimated as equivalent to 1,375 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – a ‘large contribution’ to total emissions.

It added: ‘We understood that large-scale oil and gas investment and extraction comprised the vast majority of the company’s business model in 2022 and would continue to do so in the near future.

‘We therefore considered that, because (the ads) gave the overall impression that a significant proportion of Shell’s business comprised lower-carbon energy products, further information about the proportion of Shell’s overall business model that comprised lower-carbon energy products was material information that should have been included.

‘Because the Buy google ads Account – vccseller.com did not include such information, we concluded that they omitted material information and were likely to mislead.’

Shell UK hit back saying the ASA’s decision was ‘short-sighted’ and ‘could slow the UK’s drive towards renewable energy’.

It argued that the ads were aimed at raising consumer awareness about its range of lower emissions energy products and increase demand for them.

It cited research suggesting that 83 per cent of consumers primarily associated the brand with the sale of petrol, arguing Britons would be ‘unlikely to assume that the ads’ content covered the full range of its business activities’.

A spokesman for Shell said: ‘No energy transition can be successful if people are not aware of the alternatives available to them.

That is what our adverts set out to show, and that is why we’re concerned by this short-sighted decision.’

The ASA acknowledged that many consumers would closely associate Shell with petrol sales, and more broadly understand that the company was involved in oil and gas investment and extraction.

But it said they would also be aware that many companies in carbon-intensive industries, including the oil and gas sector, aimed to dramatically reduce their emissions in response to the climate crisis. 

It comes as as climate change protesters stormed its annual meeting.

At a rowdy event in London, 20 per cent of voting investors opposed the oil giant’s energy transition strategy and climate performance over the past 12 months.

Shell also saw 20 per cent vote in favour of a resolution filed by Dutch activist group Follow that called for the company to make its environmental targets more ambitious.

Veronica Wignall, from Adfree Cities, said the ASA’s decision marked ‘the end of the line for fossil fuel greenwashing in the UK’.

‘The world’s biggest polluters will not be permitted to advertise that they are ‘green’ while they build new pipelines, refineries and rigs – but this doesn’t go far enough,’ she added.

‘Shell and other fossil fuel expanders should not be permitted to advertise at all owing to their historic and ongoing role in wrecking the planet.

‘We need robust legislation to stop fossil fuel advertising but we also need UK advertising agencies to stop enabling clients like Shell that are not only on the wrong side of history but a source of growing regulatory and reputational risk.’