Past performance relevant to rulings on two water company ads

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) upheld complaints made by nine viewers that an Anglian Water TV and video-on-demand ads were misleading because they omitted significant information about the company’s history of releasing sewage into the environment.

The advertisements covered Anglian’s creation of wetlands, work to transfer water across its region and work to reduce flooding, and contained the message “everything they do today is for tomorrow”. Anglian rejected the criticism and was supported by advertisement clearance specialist Clearcast.

The ASA said: “We accepted that Anglian Water were carrying out a number of activities that could have a positive impact on the environment. However, because they also carried out activities that caused harm to the environment, which contradicted the overall impression of the ad, we considered that was material information which should have been made clear in the ads. We concluded that the advertisements omitted material information and were therefore misleading.”

Material considerations appeared to be that in 2021, the most recent year for which information is available, Anglian received a two-star (requires improvement) rating in the Environment Agency’s Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) and its performance was significantly below target (red status) for the number of serious pollution incidents. The ad must not be shown again.

Meanwhile last week, the ASA rejected a complaint made by two viewers that a Severn Trent TV ad was misleading, also on the grounds that it omitted significant information about Severn Trent Water’s history of releasing sewage into the environment.

The advertisement focused on Severn Trent’s ambition to plant 1.3m trees. Noting that the company secured a top, four-star EPA rating, the ASA ruled: “Because their overall environmental performance did not contradict the overall impression of the ad, we did not consider that their history of releasing sewage into the environment was material information that needed to be included in the ad to prevent viewers from being misled. We therefore concluded that the ad was unlikely to mislead.”