A Wessex Water TV ad about its plans to tackle storm surges has been banned as misleading because it omitted key information about its sewage pollution record.
The Advertising Agency investigated after receiving a complaint about advertising about the supplier, which provides water to 1.4 million customers and sewerage to 2.9 million people in the south west of England.
The ad said Wessex was investing £3m a month to tackle storm surges and included commentary claiming it was “building more stormwater tanks to increase storage capacity” and “separating rainwater from sewage”, adding, that “a better way for our waterways is already underway”.
The ASA said it had upheld a complaint that the ad, which aired in February, was misleading because it omitted significant information about Wessex Water’s environmental impact. It said the ad should not appear again in the same form and concluded that “the ad omitted material information and was therefore likely to be misleading”.
Wessex Water has been criticized for its record sewage discharges by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who has called for tighter regulation of water companies. In May 2023, Wessex was fined £280,000 by Swindon Crown Court for supplying water unfit for human consumption for three weeks in 2021.
Storm overflows are only supposed to be used by water companies in extreme weather, but they have been used routinely for many years and in some cases release raw sewage even on dry days.
Wessex Water argued to the ASA that its advertisement did not make any broad claims about the impact on the environment, but referred to the problem of storm runoff. It claimed the ad took a balanced and transparent approach by addressing the shortcomings of outdated systems, particularly storm and sewer overflows, while providing an honest account of their plan going forward.
However, the ASA concluded that while Wessex’s plan was likely to lead to environmental improvements, its storm overflow problems had caused environmental damage and “we considered this to be significant information that should have been made clear in the advertisements”.
It said: “In this case, we considered that the ad gave people the impression that Wessex Water was taking steps to reduce the environmental damage caused by storm overflow pollution incidents.”
Wessex Water said: “We are disappointed by the ASA’s decision based on a single complaint it received about our advert, which was seen by hundreds of thousands of people… We recognize that past environmental performance has fallen below our expectations and we have taken steps to address this. “
The ASA upheld complaints against other water companies last year, ruling against two Anglian Water Services adverts after they omitted information about the company’s history of discharging waste water into the environment. It also upheld complaints against Severn Trent Water in the same matter.
Separately on Wednesday, the ASA also ruled against Luton Rising, the owners of London Luton Airport, over a magazine ad and a poster on the London Underground that said: “If we exceed our environmental limits, our expansion will be stopped.”
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Campaign groups Adfree Cities and Group for Action at Leeds Bradford Airport were among those who complained that the ads were misleading because they omitted important information about emissions from flights.
Luton Rising claimed the adverts were meant to show people that mitigating the impact on the environment was central to the airport’s expansion plans.
Luton Rising said: “ASA has accepted that specific carbon emissions are covered by GCG [Green Controlled Growth proposals] were featured on the Luton Rising website to which viewers of the ad were referred. They felt that this difference should be more clearly expressed in the ad itself, which we will do in any future ads.”