ASA Ruling on BMW (UK) Ltd

"A paid for Google ad for BMW featured the claim, “Zero Emissions Cars – Download Your Brochure Today. Visit BMW’s official online website. Find the perfect BMW electric car. Book a test drive. Explore a range of BMW electric cars …”. The relevant UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing required that marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. The basis of environmental claims must be clear. The ASA challenged whether the claim "Zero Emissions Cars", followed by “Find the perfect BMW electric car” and “Explore a range of BMW electric cars,” misleadingly represented the vehicles’ environmental impact. However, the ASA decided that consumers would interpret the ad as promoting BMW’s cars as cars that would produce zero emissions in all circumstances. Without material information to make clear to consumers what the claim was based on and clarification that it was restricted to emissions only when driving, ""Zero Emissions Cars"" was likely to mislead. Emissions were still generated aside from when driving, such as during the manufacture or charging of an electric vehicle using electricity from the national grid. The complaint to the ASA was upheld and it was ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form. The ASA told BMW to ensure that ads referring to “zero emissions” made clear that the claim related to an electric vehicle only when it was being driven.