Persil advert taken off air after claims of greenwashing

Persil has had one of their adverts banned from being shown  on television after it was accused of misinformation and greenwashing.

The advert claims the Unilever owned laundry detergent is “kinder to the planet”, while showing kids picking litter off a beach, and has been deemed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as unsubstantiated.

The ASA said: "Although we acknowledged Persil were undertaking actions to reduce the environmental impact of their products, we had not seen evidence or analysis to demonstrate the overall environmental impact of the featured liquid detergents over their full-life cycles, compared with Persil’s own previous products or other products, in support of the claim ‘kinder to our planet’.

"In the context of the entire ad with several messages relating to environmental issues, we considered the meaning and basis of the claim ’kinder to our planet’ was unclear.

"Additionally, in the absence of evidence demonstrating that the full-life cycle of the product had a lesser environmental impact compared to a previous formulation, we concluded the ad was likely to mislead."

Persil’s owner Unilever has expressed disappointment in the decision, saying: "We are committed to making on-going improvements to all our products to make them more sustainable and will continue to look at how we can share this with our shoppers."

Unilever claims that their liquid laundry detergent is ‘kinder to the planet’ as it uses less energy than other detergents and that their bottles are made from 50% recycled materials.

The ASA has banned the advert because the ‘kinder to the environment’ message has not been made clear enough.