BMW’s ‘Zero Emissions Cars’

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a Google ad that promoted BMW’s electric vehicles as “Zero Emissions Cars” for misleading consumers on the environmental impact of the automaker’s EVs.

In a decision announced today, the U.K. ad regulator determined that consumers would interpret “Zero Emissions,” in the context of BMW’s electric vehicles, as producing zero emissions “in all circumstances,” when in reality the claim only relates to when the cars are being driven and emissions are generated in the manufacturing and charging of the EVs.

Without material information to make clear to consumers what the claim was based on and clarification that it was restricted to emissions only when driving, we concluded “Zero Emissions Cars” was likely to mislead.

In response to the ASA’s inquiry, BMW said the phrase “Zero Emissions Cars” was automatically inserted into the Google ad without its knowledge based on a previous bid the company had made for the search term in order to target consumers looking for information about battery electric vehicles.

BMW said it has halted all bidding on the phrase “Zero Emissions Cars” and in the future would add manual copy to ensure greater control over its Google ads.

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