Transport giant FirstGroup has been rapped by the advertising watchdog for making "misleading" claims about its bus emissions.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stepped in after a TV promotion showing a poster on the back of a bus sparked a complaint over its environmental message.
While it stated: "We love low emissions" and "our buses produce 4.97% less carbon than conventional diesel buses", the watchdog found its fleet did not meet Government criteria for "low emission" vehicles.
The advert, which was broadcast on TV and online on September 23, has now been banned. It was brought to the watchdog's attention by a complainant who referred to the Department for Transport's (DfT) position on green buses.
According to the DfT, these should produce 30% less carbon than conventional diesel vehicles.
The ASA said: "We considered most viewers would expect the definition of "low emissions" in a transport ad to be in line with the DfT's definition.
"We also noted that the Government had recently announced that 542 new low carbon buses would be put on roads across England, which would produce 30% less CO2 than conventional buses.
"We considered that in stating 'We love low emissions' in the ads, some viewers might have been misled into believing that FirstGroup's buses were comparable to those low emissions buses, when they only produced 4.97% less CO2 not 30%."
According to the ASA, FirstGroup believed the complainant had misinterpreted its promotion and it did not believe the DfT's definition of low emission buses was widely known.
The ad was accepted by Clearcast, the body which vets commercials to ensure they meet requisite standards. Clearcast said the DfT's definition of a low carbon emission bus was for its own internal purposes and was "irrelevant" to the claim made by FirstGroup, the ASA noted.
