A TV advert by the UK’s biggest certifier of farm products has been banned for making misleading claims about environmental practices. The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has ruled that Red Tractor provided “insufficient evidence” to back claims about compliance with environmental laws at its farms. The ruling was linked to a 2021 advert with the message: “From field to store all our standards are met. When the Red Tractor’s there, your food’s farmed with care.”
Environmental group River Action complained to the ASA about the claim, suggesting it was evidence of “greenwashing”, the practice of deceptive marketing techniques to present a false environmentally friendly public image. Red Tractor, which oversees standards at 45,000 farms in the UK, slammed the ASA’s conclusion as “fundamentally flawed”, however.
River Action complained to the watchdog that the advert, which ran until 2023, assured customers of a “high degree of environmental protection” that it alleged didn’t match an Environment Agency report from 2020 suggesting the farms were “not currently an indicator of good environmental performance”.
Following a two-year investigation, the ASA upheld the complaint on the grounds that Red Tractor couldn’t provide “sufficient evidence” of meeting “basic” environmental laws”, with the advert therefore “misleading” the public and “exaggerating” the scheme’s benefits.
“What this shows is that for the environmental credentials Red Tractor has been misleading the public and their suppliers,” Amy Fairman, head of campaigns at River Action, said. “So, we’re looking for suppliers like supermarkets to really examine and take stock of what is on their shelves.”
Jim Mosley, CEO of Red Tractor, said: “We believe the ASA’s final decision is fundamentally flawed and misinterprets the content of our advert. [It] was last broadcast in 2023 and focused on Red Tractor’s standards for traceability, food safety and animal welfare.
“It made no environmental claim, and we completely disagree with the assumption that it would have been misinterpreted by consumers.”
Mr Mosley also expressed concerns over the process followed by the ASA during the investigation. “Rather than use the [normally deployed] ‘average consumer test’, the ASA has used their own judgement that a minority of informed consumers may misinterpret the advert,” he added.
“We believe this is an error in law and certainly a departure from normal practice. Second, we’re concerned that the use of pastoral [computer generated] imagery in conjunction with messages about responsible farming is treated as an implicit environmental claim. Both concerns could have serious implications for other advertisers, particularly in the field of food and farming.”