Lacoste's 'sustainable clothing' ad was banned — the claim had no evidence behind it

The ad was small: a paid-for Google search result, seen on 24 June 2025, promoting Lacoste Kids with the words 'sustainable clothing'. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority nonetheless made it an example. It asked Lacoste to substantiate the claim — and Lacoste, which has spent years reducing its products' carbon footprint, supplied evidence that the kids' range had a lower environmental impact than an earlier collection.

That was the wrong question answered well. On 3 December 2025 the ASA ruled that 'sustainable' is an absolute claim: consumers would read it to mean the clothes had no detrimental effect on the environment across their full life cycle. A reduced footprint is not a zero footprint, and Lacoste had not proved zero. The ad was banned under CAP Code rules on misleading advertising and environmental claims, and Lacoste was warned that future green claims must have a clear basis and a high level of substantiation.

Lacoste was not alone: the same week the ASA banned Nike and Superdry ads on the same grounds, part of a wider crackdown in which the regulator has begun using AI to scan for potentially non-compliant environmental claims. For fashion brands the message is procedural rather than moral — the environmental work you have actually done is now the evidence you must hold on file before the word appears in any ad at all.