The Advertising Standards Authority has banned Anglian Water TV ads following complaints from nine members of the public that the ads were misleading, because they omitted significant information about Anglian Water’s history of releasing sewage into the environment.

The TV ad was seen in September and October 2022 and featured a girl who said “Right now Anglian Water is creating wetlands to clean water using nature and make homes for wildlife. By building a really long pipe to bring water to places that need it most, while protecting nature too. And huge tanks to collect rain so there’s less chance of floods in the future. In fact, everything they do today is for tomorrow …”

A male voice-over said, “Never still, never stop. Anglian Water. Love every drop.” The ad included various scenes of a wetland and the wildlife living there, fields and wildlife, tanks collecting rainwater, a wind turbine, and an Anglian Water van with text on the side that stated “100% Electric 0% Emissions”.

The same ad also ran as a VOD ad on 15 September 2022.

Outlining the reasons for its decision, the ASA said the complainants were concerned because they understood that Anglian Water “had a history of dumping sewage into rivers and the sea, had killed fish and wildlife as a result, and had been fined because of those actions.”

Anglian Water "did not believe any significant information had been omitted from campaign"

The water company mounted a strong defence in a detailed response to the complaints. Anglian Water told the ASA that the company did not believe that the ads, which were part of a wider, multi-media and multi-channel campaign, were misleading. The utility explained that the ads included a number of initiatives that showed where Anglian Water were investing in environmental protection and improvement for the long term. The campaign had also included addressing criticism aimed at both Anglian Water and the industry more generally regarding perceptions of environmental performance.

“They believed that they had an overwhelmingly positive impact on the environment when all their activities were taken into account and they did not believe that any significant information had been omitted from the campaign, of which the ads were a part”, the ASA commented in its ruling .

ASA ruling - company must ensure that “when making environmental claims" they are "adequately qualified"

Despite the strong defence, ASA concluded the company had breached Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) codes and British Code of Advertising Practice (BCAP) codes.

The CAP and BCAP Codes require that the basis of environmental claims must be clear, and that unqualified claims could mislead if they omitted significant information.

ASA’s ruling refers to the fact that in 2021, which ASA understood was the most recent year for which data was available, Anglian Water had an overall Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) rating of two stars (out of a possible four), which meant that the ‘company requires improvement’. ASA also pointed out that the EPA report stated that they performed below target (amber status) for the number of sewerage pollution incidents and for their compliance with their discharge permit. Their performance was significantly below target (red status) for the number of serious pollution incidents. Furthermore, Anglian Water had had enforcement action against them on multiple occasions in recent years for Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR) offences.

Setting out its decision, ASA said:

“We accepted that Anglian Water were carrying out a number of activities that could have a positive impact on the environment. However, because they also carried out activities that caused harm to the environment, which contradicted the overall impression of the ad, we considered that was material information which should have been made clear in the ads. We concluded that the ads omitted material information and were therefore misleading.”

The Authority has told Anglian Water that the ads must not appear again in the form complained of and that the company must ensure that “when making environmental claims they were adequately qualified and did not omit material information about the negative impact they had on the environment.”