London Times: Ed Miliband's adverts banned for overstating climate change

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7061162.ece

March 14, 2010

Ed Miliband's adverts banned for overstating climate change

Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor

TWO government advertisements that use nursery rhymes to warn people of the dangers of climate change have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for exaggerating the potential harm.

The adverts, commissioned by Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, used the rhymes to suggest that Britain faces an inevitable increase in storms, floods and heat waves unless greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control.

The ASA has ruled that the claims made in the newspaper adverts were not supported by solid science and has told the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that they should not be published again.

...

The rulings will be an embarrassment for Miliband, who has tried to portray his policies as firmly science-based. He had commissioned two posters, four press advertisements and a short film for television and cinema, which started appearing in October last year in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate talks.

...

:banghead:

[aquart]

1. I don't think you can exaggerate the potential harm of climate change.

How much of Britain is going to be under water?

[nxylas]

2. This is going to make the deniers think Christmas has come early

Considering how they turned the court case agains Al Gore (which Gore won, never forget) into a huge victory, imagine what they'll do with this.

[Nihil]

3. W.T.F.?

The ASA admitted that they didn't understand the science ... and then
went ahead, supporting the well-orchestrated attack from their position
of self-conscious ignorance?!

:argh:

[Dead_Parrot]

4. Evolution

Sometimes you're the vulture, and sometimes you're the dodo.

[Viking12]

5. Do they have to lie about everything climate related?

Two contradictory stories describing the same adjudication: The Sunday Times

Ed Miliband's adverts banned for overstating climate change

vs The Guardian

Climate change adverts draw mild rebuke from advertising watchdog

One way to determine which story is more accurate is to do what anarchist does and carefully read the adjudication. But the shortcut to the truth is to note that the first story was written by Jonathan Leake.

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/?utm_source=bloglist&utm_medium=dropdown

[Nihil]

6. Good catch. (n/t)