The company belonging to Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has been found to have misled consumers about the cleanliness of methane gas.
Ads for Hancock Prospecting’s recruitment webpage futureaustralianjobs.com ran in the digital edition of the Australian newspaper in October last year. They claimed that “Our clean gas keeps the lights, and factories, hospitals, and shops open from Tokyo to Toowoomba.” (see image below).
A complaint about the ad by climate communications group, Comms Declare, was upheld and Hancock Prospecting confirmed the ad has been discontinued.
The Ad Standards Community Panel found that the ‘clean gas’ claim was both misleading and unsubstantiated, saying; “…without further disclaimers explaining the limitations of the word “clean” in this context, the advertisement was misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive.”
Belinda Noble, founder of Comms Declare said, “We’re thrilled that greenwashing by climate polluters has finally been taken seriously. Gas is a flammable, toxic and polluting fossil fuel. It is not clean, green or renewable and we hope this is the beginning of the end of flagrant gas industry greenwashing.”
Under the self-regulation regime, Ad Standards cannot issue financial penalties.
