An advertisement by a Singapore consumer electronics company that claims consumers can “save Earth” by buying its energy-efficient airconditioners has been banned by the country’s advertising watchdog for greenwashing.
In a video version of a social media campaign for Prism+ Zero Smart Aircon units, which has since been taken down after the ban, local influencer Xiaxue, real name Wendy Cheng, is called by a fictional president who asks for her help to “save the earth”. In response, Xiaxue puts on winter clothing, sets the airconditioner to 23°C, and snuggles under a blanket. “Save Earth and electricity with 5 ticks energy saving,” reads the caption. The 5 ticks refers to Singapore’s classification system for the energy efficiency of electrical appliances, with 5 ticks being the highest rating.
In response to a complaint about the campaign, Singapore’s advertising watchdog ruled that the video misled consumers and Prism+ was asked to remove the ad, which has been running on Instagram. The advertiser has complied.
The ruling marks the first time that an advertising campaign in Singapore, or anywhere in Asia, has been banned for greenwashing.
In a statement shared with Eco-Business, Professor Ang Peng Hwa, chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS) said the ad was “not acceptable” for claiming that energy-guzzling airconditioners can save the Earth, irrespective of how much energy this model can save, and was misleading.
ASAS ruled that the ad flouted Singapore’s advertising code, in particular a section on “truthful presentation”, which demands that advertising does not “mislead in any way by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration or omission.”
The watchdog also told the company, which was founded in 2017 by Singaporean Jonathan Tan, that any energy savings claims should be substantiated by getting its products and other comparable models made by competitors tested by a third-party “in conditions that are applicable to the local context.”
The ruling comes a month after the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore and National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School published a study of 1,000 product sustainability claims on e-commerce sites, and found that more than half (51 per cent) were vague with insufficient elaboration or details to support claims.
Professor Lawrence Loh, director of the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at NUS Business School, told Eco-Business that the Prism+ advertisement was guilty of the most common form of greenwashing – making unsubstantiated claims.
Airconditioners account for just under a quarter (24 per cent) of the energy consumption of a typical household in Singapore – more than any other appliance, according to National Environment Agency (NEA) data.
Singapore is a large consumer of airconditioning technology to keep the tropical country – which is heating at twice the rate of the global average, mainly due to the urban heat island effect – cool, with building occupants routinely complaining that they are too cold.
Singapore’s high aircon consumption sparked a social campaign in 2016, named #Up2degrees, by former Facebook Asia Pacifc marketer Sandra Marichal, who campaigned for building owners to increase the temperature of their buildings to mitigate the climate impact of airconditioning. The campaign ended when Marichal left the country.
The recommended temperature to aircondition a room to a level considered appropriate by NEA, considering the Singapore’s humidity and temperature, is 25°C – two degrees warmer than the temperature that Xiaxue sets her aircon unit to in the Prism+ ad.
As Southeast Asia warms, cooling technologies such as refrigeration and airconditioning could account for 40 per cent of the regional bloc’s electricity demand by 2040, according to a 2018 white paper by Eco-Business. The paper found that Southeast Asian consumers are largely unaware of the climate hazards of increasing demands for cooling technologies.
Complaints about greenwash targeting other advertisements have been previously filed by consumers to AAS, but were dismissed by the city-state’s ad watchdog. In June this year, in response to complaints made about the climate implications of an advertising campaign for ride-hailing app Grab that encourages Singapore commuters to use private cars instead of public transport, AAS determined that the ads did not breach the advertising code, because it did not misrepresent or denigrate the experience of taking public transport in a way that would be taken seriously by its viewers.
