Innocent Drinks

Adverts for drinks firm Innocent have been banned after the advertising regulator ruled they " misled" customers over The Firm 's environmental impact.

Innocent, owned by Coca-Cola, said it was " disappointed" and had intended to show " the need for collective action".

It Comes after Pepsi Lipton and Aqua Pura water saw ads banned for claims that their packaging was made from 100% recycled materials.

Innocent's drinks bottles include non-recycled plastic.

The banned adverts, produced by advertising agency Mother, show animated characters who sing about " messing up the planet" while they pollute their environment.

Then an otter sings: " Let's get fixing up the planet" encouraging people to " reduce, re-use, recycle" as trees grow and apples are squeezed into Innocent smoothies.

The watchdog said The Adverts did not show that Innocent's single-use plastic products had a " net positive" environmental impact over their full Life Cycles .

Twenty-six viewers, one of whom identified themselves as representing environmental group Plastics Rebellion, complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that The Adverts misled customers by exaggerating the " total environmental benefits" of the drinks.

The ASA said the extraction of raw materials and subsequent processing in order to produce its bottles would also have a negative impact on The Environment .

The bottles that Innocent sells in the UK contain 50% recycled plastic and 50% virgin material, not including the caps and labels.

The regulator said that because the ads " implied that purchasing Innocent products was a choice which would have a positive environmental impact when that was not the case" it concluded that the ads were " misleading. "

In the ruling, Innocent responded that there was no suggestion in the ads that buying Innocent products would lead to a positive environmental impact. Instead, the ruling states that Innocent said the ad was a " call to action" asking for their drinkers to join them in making changes happen, which was demonstrated by The Change of leadership from The Man to the otter.

Innocent said: " Our advert was always intended to highlight important global Environmental Issues and the need for collective action to make a change. We transparently share more about The Work that we do on sustainability on our website.

" As with any new guidelines, we'd like to work with the ASA and other brands to understand How To align to them to continue The Conversation on these important topics. "

Mother advertising agency declined to comment when approached by The Bbc .

In a statement, Plastics Rebellion said that Innocent were being " disingenuous" about the dangers of plastic's threat to human health and environment, as well as " trivialising the horrific scale of The Problem by repeating the mantra: 'Reduce, re-use, recycle'".

Coca-Cola, owner of Innocent, produces about three million tonnes of plastic packaging a Year - equivalent to 200,000 bottles a minute.

In 2019, it was found to be The Most polluting brand in a global audit of plastic waste by The Charity Break Free From Plastic.

Environmental groups have repeatedly campaigned for single-use plastic to be drastically reduced to prevent pollution.

Scotland most single-use plastic from June 2022.

In January an advert for Lipton Ice Tea was also banned after the ASA ruled it " misleadingly implied" that all of the Lipton bottle was made from 100% recycled plastic.

The watchdog also banned an Aqua Pura advert earlier this Year for The Claim "100% recycled bottle" because not all of the parts of The Bottle were recycled and warned The Firm to ensure they did not " overstate the environmental benefit" of their brand and products, and did not claim that products made of plastic were " eco-friendly" or " nature friendly".

Source of news: bbc.com