The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2022–2023
Shell told Bristol it was 'READY for Cleaner Energy' — the ASA banned the ads
Posters, a TV spot and a YouTube video showed EV chargers and wind turbines. The ASA noted Shell emitted 1,375 million tonnes of CO2 that year.
Shell · 2023-06-07
What happened
In June 2022, Shell ran a poster in Bristol declaring 'BRISTOL is READY for Cleaner Energy', a TV ad showing EV chargers, offshore wind engineers and the claim 'The UK is READY for Cleaner Energy', and an identical YouTube video. The campaign, built by Wunderman Thompson, used the word 'READY' as a visual device spelling out across scenes, and closed with the hashtag #PoweringProgress.
Adfree Cities complained that the ads omitted significant information about the overall environmental impact of Shell's business. The ASA upheld the complaint on 7 June 2023. It found the cumulative effect of the lower-carbon claims, combined with the emphasis on 'READY', gave the impression that low-carbon products comprised a significant proportion of Shell's business — when in fact large-scale oil and gas extraction comprised the vast majority.
Shell argued that consumers already associated the brand with petrol, citing market research showing 83% did so, and that mentioning high-carbon products would be 'counterproductive' to an ad promoting low-carbon energy. The ASA disagreed: the ads omitted material information and were likely to mislead. All three ads were banned from appearing again in the complained-about form.
Why it happened
- The creative brief selected only lower-carbon activities — EV chargers, wind projects, renewable electricity — and treated them as representative of the whole business
- Shell's own argument that consumers 'already know we sell petrol' was rejected: the ASA held that the ads' overall impression still needed qualifying
- The word 'READY' implied present or near-future significance, not a distant aspiration, which widened the gap between claim and reality
- A second ASA ruling in 2025 was not upheld only because Shell had added superimposed text showing 68% of investment was still oil and gas
The lesson
Environmental claims that cherry-pick a company's greenest activities mislead by omission — regulators now require the proportion of the whole business to be stated.
Aftermath
The ASA told Shell to ensure future environmental claims did not mislead by exaggerating or omitting material information about the proportion of lower-carbon activities. Shell's next UK campaign, in 2024, included superimposed text stating that 68% of global investment was oil and gas. That version survived an ASA challenge in April 2025.
Sources
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