Formal Complaint Filed Against ExxonMobil for False Ads
Climate and environment ads false and misleading, says group
Contact: Darek Urbaniak, Friends of the Earth Europe
(Belgium, July 9, 2007) – A formal complaint was filed with Belgium’s Jury of Advertising Ethics (JEP) against ExxonMobil this week by Friends of the Earth Europe. The complaints are based on two of ExxonMobil's advertisements that the group says are dishonest and provide false information and therefore, in violation of multiple cited ethical advertising codes.
FOE is asking the Belgium regulatory body to evaluate the advertisements and take appropriate action. This could include ordering ExxonMobil to stop the advertisements and publish - at the company’s expense - corrections stating that the advertisements are misleading and incorrect. Decisions by the agency typically take about six weeks.
Advertisement 1: “Taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”
“The headline and content of the advertisement indicates that ExxonMobil is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. This is a false and misleading statement as ExxonMobil’s own, yearly Corporate Citizenship Report for 2006 shows that the company’s greenhouse gas emissions have been rising since 2003,” explains the complaint.
The complaint documents how ExxonMobil’s carbon dioxide emissions, the main contributors to global warming, have been increasing steadily since 2003. Citing various codes, the group argues that it is false and misleading to advertise that the company is “already taking steps to reduce its emissions” when the company’s own record contradicts this claim.
In regards to ExxonMobil’s claim that its “scientists and engineers are working to reduce emissions today” the group notes that while that may be somewhat true, it is misleading the public. The group highlights the well documented fact that ExxonMobil is a leading advocate in the campaign against action on climate change through its own lobbying efforts and through its funding of other industry lobby groups, such as the Global Climate Coalition and the American Petroleum Institute.
Advertisement 2: “Values at work”
The complaint cites the ad for being in violation of various ethical codes for using terminology and comparisons that are misleading and difficult to understand by customers, leading them to believe that ExxonMobil’s environmental performance has improved when, according to company records, it worsened.
In the ad, ExxonMobil claims that the company has a “record low number of oil spills”, which the group concedes is true based on the company’s 2006 report. The number of hydrocarbon spills went down from 370 spills to 295 spills in 2005 to 2006. However, the group argues, it is not the number of oil spills but the amount of spilled oil that is the most important factor to determine the negative impact on the environment.
The company’s 2006 report shows that the amount of oil spilled went up by from 12 thousand barrels to 40 thousand barrels from 2005 to 2006. “An amount of oil spilled that is nearly 3.5 times higher than in year 2005, is not a “record low” says the group.
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An update to this report will be posted on ExxposeExxon.com when the Belguim agency responds to the complaint.
