Uniqlo, Adidas, Calvin Klein must remove misleading ads about ‘recycled materials’

The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on June 24 announced its ruling with Uniqlo, Adidas and Calvin Klein.

The three fashion brands above all run paid ads with the message “recycle” on Google. Among them, Adidas promotes “recycled running shoes”, Calvin Klein advertises “recycled” women’s shirts, and Uniqlo introduces jackets made from “recycled materials”. However, authorities accused the above message of misleading that 100% of the products were made from recycled materials, while fashion retailers could not prove their environmental friendliness as advertised.

In response to ASA’s investigation, Adidas responded that they do not have a separate line of recycled running shoes. Some products in their collections may incorporate recycled materials, with internal authentication documentation.

Calvin Klein said some products in its line of women’s T-shirts and blouses use “eco-friendly materials,” including recycled, organic and other materials. They believe that consumers will not misunderstand the company’s advertising in the direction that the recycling claim applies to the entire product line.

From Uniqlo’s perspective, they think consumers can understand that their products are made from recycled materials to a “significant extent”. In particular, the polyester material used in their sweatshirts is made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles, recycled from post-consumer waste. The word “recycled” is not used for other components such as zippers or labels. The company added that the claim in the ad was verified by an international certification body.

After receiving feedback from businesses, ASA noted that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued guidance on “Complying with consumer law when making environmental claims in the fashion retail sector”. The guidance states that advertisers should not imply that a product is made entirely from a single material, if that message is not true.

For example, a product should not be described as “recycled” or “organic”, if it contains fibers that are not recycled or organic, unless the proportion of these fibers is negligible. That is, a product cannot be advertised as recycled if it does not use nearly 100% recycled materials.

For example, in the case of Uniqlo, the ads displayed on Google include the messages “Uniqlo women’s product line”, “buy now”, “recycled materials”… The ad content does not include information explaining the basis of the “recycled materials” statement, which could lead users to understand that this statement is absolute.

Therefore, the authorities concluded that the claims of the above advertisements have not been fully proven. Businesses must remove advertisements and ensure that subsequent green claims include highly authentic evidence.

The ruling is part of a wide-ranging investigation into environmental claims in the fashion retail sector, avoiding “greenwashing”. Authorities apply a monitoring system using artificial intelligence (AI) to review advertisements in this field, thereby identifying subjects of investigation.

Late last year, the ASA also banned ads from Lacoste, Nike and Superdry for allegedly making false environmental claims.