Filed under: Legislation and Policy
Norwegian ads can't say cars are green, environmental, clean or natural
Want to advertise your green car in Norway? You cannot use the words "green" or "clean" or "environmentally friendly" or "natural" or "environmental car" starting October 15. You can't even say "car x has low emissions of carbon dioxide." Why? "Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage than others" says Bente Oeverli, Consumer Ombudsman.
Many car makers (Toyota, GM, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Saab and Suzuki) have had phrases in ads called misleading by Norway. Toyota dared to call the Prius "the world's most environmentally friendly car." What's wrong with that? Norway says that can't be proven. You have to document all aspects of production then compare that to all other cars. "In practice that can't be done" says Oeverli, so they can't say it. There are fines if they do.
[Source: Treehugger via Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
grimmex 10:06PM (9/06/2007)
Yeah, he's got a point there.
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fry 11:28PM (9/06/2007)
I'm just shocked that such a rational, completely understandable (and frankly obvious) law exists.
Major props to Norway.
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Tony Belding 7:49AM (9/07/2007)
So. . . If you're Toyota, what exactly can you say about, for example, a Prius? I guess you can tout its fuel efficiency. I wonder if you could get away with showing it next to a polar bear? I wonder if you could get away with showing it in front of a green backdrop?
What was disturbing to me, in the original article, was that they won't even allow Toyota to advertise how little CO2 it produces. They said that mentioning CO2 alone would *imply* to consumers that it doesn't produce much nitrous oxide or other pollutants. I'm not sure I'd want a government agency restricting my speech on the basis of what implications they imagine somebody might draw.
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Snark 8:08AM (9/07/2007)
As much as people might hate to admit it, they're right. Cars aren't green. Manufacturing, mining, and driving are not green activities.
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Henry 8:40AM (9/07/2007)
Farming isn't green because they use petroleum -based fertilizers which cause CO2 to be released when it is made and put on the farm.
Leftover husks and dead plants provide enough CO2 for the plants to grow rather then being thrown in landfills.
Greener is green enough for now.
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Cobos 8:51AM (9/07/2007)
Looking at the original source of this piece of news it seems this has been misquoted a bit.
It is correct that car manufacturers can't use inprecise words like "green", "envormentally friendly" unless they can document that the car from construction, sale display, use and finally discarding is significantly less enviromentally unfriendly than other cars. This as mentioned means using those kind of words is impossible. It might be possible for electric vehicles but would demand a lot of documentation.
You CAN say the car has low CO2 emissions though but that requires the car in question to be in the top 33% percentile in all 3 primary exhaust categories (CO2, NOX and particulates). And then we are talking about the top 33% of all cars not premium SUV category f. inst. This means the Lexus 600h which has lower emissions than other premium large sedans with big engines could not brag about lower emissions.
So in many ways the biggest change here is that big and heavy cars with big engines, but relatively speaking lower emissions can't use green marketing any longer.
Tony Belding: The implication theory is not supported in the letter to the car importers which is the source, rather that if they say they have low emissions they have to be lowest 33 percentile in all types. This is very relevant after Norway changed part of the car taxes last year and the result is that Diesels account for almost 70% of all new sales now and diesels increase NOX and particulate emissions for a reduction in CO2. Which is what most of the critic against the new CO2 component for the car sales tax has mentioned.
Cobos
Source: http://www.forbrukerombudet.no/index.gan?id=11040611&subid=0
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Tim 9:50AM (9/07/2007)
Then American politicians shouldn’t be able to use the words:
“investment” when they are referring to tax & spend or incurring new debt
“liberal, or progressive” when they are referring to old socialist policies
“conservative” when they are referring to Neo-cons who are really socialists.
“homeland security” when they are making rights & freedoms less secure
“reduction” when they are referring to “less of an increase”.
“defense” when they are referring to aggression abroad
“patriot act” when they are ignoring the US constitution
“federal reserve” which is no more federal than federal express.
“money” when referring to the US $Dollar “federal reserve” fiat debt instruments.
“free trade” which is costing us hundreds of thousands of jobs each year.
and so on…
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Don 2:43PM (9/07/2007)
The Norwegians have always had their heads on straight. When I visited there in the mid-nineties, I found a society largely centered around common sense and hard work.
What a concept.
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fnc 3:54PM (9/07/2007)
I 100% agree with Tim's proposal.
Sounds like the Nordy government is just trying to force some truth in advertising instead of letting carmakers spin an ad to ride a market trend.
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Manu Sharma 4:25PM (9/07/2007)
I've always admired Scandinavians and this makes me respect them even more.
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jason 6:20PM (12/07/2008)
reminds me of the "happy cows come from california" ads.
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merlin 12:50AM (12/09/2008)
check out this web site; car runs on water
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080613/153276/
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Uncle B 7:58AM (5/06/2009)
Norway, unlike the U.S.A. which shvts all over itself, its lakes, its rivers and its seashores, and has great stinking "Factory Farms" spewing out crap, makes bio-gas from sewage and powers the buses of Oslo with it, importing less oil, and doing a win-win in the environmental sphere. If American capitalism didn't control things in the U.S., a lot of resource flows, now discarded due to marginal recovery profits, would be used up for a net national profit! not corporate profit! Oh! to be a shitty smelly rich extravagant American, pising in his own drinking water because he can make more money putting his money in the Shanghai market than doing the right thing at home!
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