Air travel ads don't encourage consumers to damaging behavior, regulator rules

Advertisements for air travel do not violate the advertising guidelines and remain permitted. Advertising Code Committee (RCC) reached this conclusion in a case that Fossil Free Advertising had brought against travel organization TUI.

The claimants had argued that TUI was encouraging consumers to engage in harmful behavior with a TV advertisement for holidays in Turkey. "Flying is behavior that is highly damaging for the environment, climate, and health," said Fossil Free Advertising. According to the group, this violates a general advertising rule stating that advertisements may not encourage harmful behavior.

According to the RCC and the institution's appeals board, who had dealt with the complaint after an initial rejection, the rules should not be interpreted so broadly. "Offering a flying vacation is a permitted economic activity. The complaint, in fact, concerns the indirect consequences of the television advertising, namely the consequences that the flight holiday to be booked will have on the environment when the trip takes place," the ruling states.

If the legislator had wanted a ban on advertising for flight holidays, it would have been "obvious that this ban would have been included as such in the list of prohibited expressions," as is the case in advertisements for tobacco products and prescription drugs.

Apart from the general judgment that air travel advertisements are permitted, the RCC sees no violations in the specific TUI commercial. It was only about the destination, the Turkish Riviera, and contained "no separate incitement that could lead to behavior that is harmful to health and/or highly harmful to the environment," the RCC considered. The Appeals Board subsequently agreed with this.

According to Fossil Free Advertising, the advertisement regulator is "missing an opportunity to make a meaningful ruling for the climate to protect the health of civilians and the planet."

The campaign group believes that European advertising legislation provides starting points for a ban on air travel advertising and is considering taking legal action. "If air travel is not considered 'very harmful' for the climate, what is?" the group asks.