Should we get rid of the ads for the big cars polluting or low cost airlines touting their tickets for less than ten euros ? One of the proposals adopted by the 'Convention' for the climate after several months of reflection offers" prohibit efficient and effective advertising products of the greatest emitters of GHGS [greenhouse gas] in the past, on all advertising media ".
The idea of a regulation of the advertising function of the environmental impact of products and services sold makes its way. In 2019, the deputies Matthew Orphan (ex LREM) and Delphine Batho (EELV) had attempted to pass an amendment to the law on mobility to prohibit the advertising of polluting cars, without success. In march, the deputy LREM du Gard Anthony Cellier had made the adoption of an amendment to the broadcasting law requiring broadcasters to " the conclusion of codes of conduct designed to reduce effectively the audiovisual commercial communications relating to products with a negative impact on the environment." Joined by The Point, he considers that the proposal for a 'Convention' is a " good thing ". "You see that when you work on the subject, we came to the same conclusion. "Interrupted by the health crisis, the examination of the draft law is expected to resume in the fall.
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65 % of the French want a ban on
A first no less radical than the proposal for a 'Convention', but the member wishes to " continue to fight on this issue ". Consumers seem to be ready. In a BVA survey carried out for the NGO Greenpeace in June, 65 % of those interviewed say they supported a ban of advertisements for the brands that contribute the most to climate change, such as airplanes, cars, airlines... In a report published on June 17, with climate action Network and Resistance to the aggression of advertising, it calls for a " Evin law climate ", on the model of the 1991 law, which has very strict rules on the advertising of tobacco and alcohol.
another report, " Advertising and the ecological transition ", submitted on 11 June to the minister of the Transition, ecological and solidarity-based Elizabeth Terminal and his secretary of State Brown Poirson, is more measured. The authors raise the difficulty to transpose the Evin law to the pollutants, noting that if " tobacco is a product that is very identified, widely spread, and the effect of which on public health is evident and very costly for the company ", clearly defining the products that would be affected by the ban promises to be more complex. "Should we, for example, prohibit the advertising to fashion, a sector that represents 10 % of global carbon emissions, more than all emissions from international flights and maritime shipping ?" ask they.
" More fundamentally, prohibit the advertising of products whose sale is not prohibited or strongly discouraged, for example by a taxation adapted, could pose legal problems. "The report submitted to ministers, therefore, rejects the idea of a ban, except for the products expected to disappear at a certain maturity, as the diesel cars. The authors prefer the establishment of a "climate information" in the campaign. "Advertising can and should also contribute to the evolution of behaviours, including for greater moderation. The horizon, therefore, should not be a world without advertising. "
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But to the NGOS, the legal notices as they are already in the campaigns on food or on energy – "energy is our future, save it" – are not effective : they are " too general ", create a "habit" that distorts the message and "brand" the consumer rather than the product. "It is necessary to put a brake on incentives advertising that play, so insidious, our frustrations and our desires, by hiding the reality of the environmental impacts harmful to the goods for which they make the claim" write in their report.
A big shortfall for advertisers
Remains to measure the economic impact of such a ban on these advertisements which make a big difference to advertising. In the report, "Advertising and the ecological transition" given to ministers, the authors remind us that "advertising contributes to the funding of the media" to the tune of one-third for the written press, and up to 50 % for the television and the radio. A lot of them, " in a precarious position with the explosion of digital, owe their survival to advertising revenues ".
And the polluting industries covered by the ban account for a large portion of these advertising revenues. In 2019, according to Greenpeace, climate action Network and Resistance to the assault of advertising, the car manufacturers and the air and oil have spent 5.1 billion euros in communication in France. Alone, the PSA Peugeot Citroën group has spent 1.7 billion euros, of which 915 million in advertising.
Not easy for the advertisers to get rid of these advertisers heavily, just behind the large-scale distribution, the largest advertiser in France. Interviewed in the program, The Earth at the carré on France Inter on the difference between the editorial line of the station and the advertisements of cars that are disseminated, the director of the advertising agency; Radio France explains that the car manufacturers weigh about 30 % of the market on the antennae of the public group. "Imagine an antenna or a control ignore a sector that weighs 30 % of the advertising market, it is not tenable, recognizes Pascal Girodias. So yes it the approach. "
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in Addition to the Channel, the british newspaper The Guardian has taken the step in the beginning of the year, announcing not to accept advertisements from companies " involved in the extraction of non-renewable resources ". A symbolic measure designed to be more fitting with the editorial line of the newspaper, but that is especially – and only – the oil companies. The leaders have abandoned the ban more widely the ads for products the carbon footprint is important because " it is not financially viable as long as the economic model for the media industry remains in crisis." As often in the field of ecological transition, it is therefore a model must be reinvented.
