The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024
BMW's 'Zero Emissions Cars' ad banned — even 0.02% of impressions counts
BMW's Google ad said 'Zero Emissions Cars'. The ASA banned it: EVs emit during manufacture and charging — and BMW only noticed the claim after a complaint.
BMW · 2024-02
What happened
On 16 August 2023 a paid Google search ad for BMW read 'Zero Emissions Cars – Download Your Brochure Today. Visit BMW's official online website. Find the perfect BMW electric car. Book a test drive. Explore a range of BMW electric cars'. It appeared when users searched for terms like 'zero emission cars'.
BMW said it had bid on such terms to reach consumers looking for battery electric vehicles, but the exact copy was inserted automatically by Google Ads' automatic keyword feature — it did not know the feature was active and only discovered the claim when the complaint arrived. The claim appeared in 0.02% of its paid search impressions. BMW halted bidding on the keywords, reviewed all generic keywords and disabled the automatic feature.
On 7 February 2024 the ASA upheld the complaint. Consumers would read the ad as claiming BMW's electric cars produced zero emissions in all circumstances, but emissions arise during manufacture and from grid electricity charging. Without a qualifier restricting the claim to driving, it was likely to mislead. The ad breached CAP rules 3.1, 3.3, 3.9 and 11.1 and must not appear again in its current form.
Why it happened
- 'Zero emissions' is only true while driving — manufacture and grid charging emit, and the ad didn't say so.
- The copy was inserted by an automatic feature BMW didn't know was on — 0.02% of impressions is still an ad.
- BMW's other marketing already qualified zero-emissions claims as driving-only — this ad was the exception that slipped through.
- One complaint was enough: the ASA doesn't need a crowd before banning a claim.
The lesson
An ad that slipped in automatically is still an ad: BMW's 'Zero Emissions Cars' Google listing ran in 0.02% of impressions and still got banned — zero-emissions claims need a driving-only qualifier.
Aftermath
The ASA ruled the ad must not appear again and told BMW to make clear that zero-emissions claims applied to the vehicle only when being driven.
Sources
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
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