[sustran] EU may force car makers to reveal emissions in adverts [and more]

[Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory]

  *EU may force car makers to reveal emissions in adverts

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The Independent (London), May 17, 2008 Saturday - The European Union is 
preparing to introduce tough new rules on car advertising, forcing 
manufacturers to include conspicuous and easily understood information 
about petrol consumption and emissions.

The new line follows the EU's decision to exert ever-greater control on 
the way that tobacco, alcohol and food products can be advertised, 
counterbalancing the claims and sales lines of advertisers with warnings 
about the health implications of their products.

Details of the proposal to compel car manufacturers to own up to the 
carbon footprint of their vehicles will be unveiled by the end of the 
month, after which the politicians and car industry representatives will 
discuss them for the first time. [The following is for me the most 
interesting] As well as spelling out the environmental implications of 
the cars, the draft regulations are said by Der Spiegel magazine to 
require manufacturers to put a brake on the prose and the images used to 
imprint the desirability of their latest models. Any reference to 
sportiness will apparently be frowned on.

The target of the new rules is obviously the gas-guzzler, and as the 
country that produces the great majority of Europe's luxury cars - 
including those driven by the chauffeurs of most European Commissioners 
- the German industry is already up in arms about the restrictions.

As the EU sends its forces of righteousness into new terrain, the 
advertising men are putting up a fight. Volker Nickel, of the German 
Advertising Industry Association, complains of "constant new regulations 
and more and more government control," amounting to "a gigantic 
re-education programme for consumers and producers."

Magazine and newspaper publishers, which depend on car advertising for 
as much as 20 per cent of their revenue, are worried that the car 
companies, threatened with having their images of luxury and sportiness 
mutilated by the sort of loud warnings that adorn cigarette packets, may 
seek other ways to promote their products. Bernd Kundrun, the chairman 
of the German publishing company Gruner + Jahr, fears "dramatic 
consequences" for print media. Mathias Dopfner, the chief executive of 
the publishing giant Axel Springer, claimed the new rules would be "a 
major threat to free competition and journalism".

Environmentalists argue that the car industry has only itself to blame. 
Way back in 1999, Brussels introduced guidelines on information about 
the CO2 emissions and petrol consumption of cars, stating that it should 
be "easily legible and no less pronounced than the main part of the 
advertising message" and "easily understood, even when read briefly". 
But these were only guidelines, and the industry abused them heartily.

In a flagrant recent example highlighted by environmental campaigners, 
the image of a luxury car was splashed across a 23ft-long hoarding - 
with the consumption and emissions information about it printed in 
letters one-quarter of an inch high.

So now self-regulation has failed, tough rules are to follow. But they 
are still being thrashed out in Brussels. The president of the EU 
Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, is still fighting a long duel with the 
car industry over CO2 emissions caps, due to be introduced in 2012, and 
is said to be chary about starting another war until that one is 
resolved. So the first guidelines may be relatively mild, but if so that 
will be only a tactical ploy. Implementation of tough rules will merely 
be delayed.

Meanwhile, the commissioners will continue to burn down the Continent's 
roads in their Mercedes, BMWs, Audis and Jaguars. The only exception, 
appropriately, is the Environmental Commissioner, Stavros Dimas - who 
ostentatiously putters about in a Japanese hybrid.

May 17, 2008

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The last seven photos are new since the last announced update...

- T

-- 
--------------------------------------------

Todd Edelman
Director
Green Idea Factory

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CAR is over. If you WANT it.