According to a study, around a third of all commercials on German television and YouTube advertise climate-damaging products. Is this a violation of the State Media Treaty?
On TV and on YouTube, one says Study by the union-affiliated Otto Brenner Foundation and the University of Leipzig too much advertising for goods and services that are harmful to the climate. The study authors state that this violates the State Media Treaty.
Advertising market harms the climate
A team of researchers led by communications scientist Uwe Krüger from the University of Leipzig analyzed 9,779 commercials with a total duration of almost 52 hours and calculated the CO2 footprint of the advertised goods. “With this enormous database, we can make a realistic statement that the German advertising market on television and YouTube is damaging the climate,” said study co-author Katharina Forstmair.
After that, 30.3 percent, i.e. around 3,000 spots, appeal to viewers to purchase or consume climate-damaging goods and services. According to the study, TV commercials on average advertise climate sinners significantly more often than their counterparts on YouTube. In the evaluated advertising clips of the videos with the highest views on the largest German YouTube channels, only around one in seven posts praised a “climate killer,” it is said.
“Misleading greenwashing”?
The authors assigned 86 percent of the spots for confectionery to climate-damaging products. Chocolate in particular has a large CO2 footprint. But a large majority of products related to cars (78 percent) and drugstore items (72 percent) are also classified as harmful to the climate.
The study also looks at the strategies “with which the climate-damaging effects of the products would be made invisible or even reversed”. “For example, 21 percent of all commercials for climate-damaging products advertised with images of natural landscapes and wild animals. This conveys the message that you are doing something good for the environment when you buy these products,” says study co-author Alexandra Hilpert. This is “misleading greenwashing”.
Warnings required
According to the authors of the study, this violates the State Media Treaty, which explicitly prohibits advertising for “highly” environmentally damaging behavior. “Advertising must not promote behavior that endangers health or safety or, to a large extent, the protection of the environment,” says the State Media Treaty §8. The foundation explained that advancing climate change and the impending climate catastrophe require a policy that recognizes, sanctions and prevents such violations of the rules.
Jupp Legrand, Managing Director of the Otto Brenner Foundation, is therefore calling for countermeasures such as mandatory warnings for climate-damaging products or the introduction of a dynamic price and levy system. Depending on the carbon footprint of the goods being advertised, advertising bans should also be considered, says Legrand.