US Cotton Ad Banned Over Green Claims

published Mar 21, 2008
US Cotton Ad Banned Over Green Claims
An ad campaign by the US cotton industry has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for making misleading claims promoting the material as an environmentally- friendly product.

The campaign, for the Cotton Council International trading as Cotton USA, consisted of a magazine and poster ad.

The ad used the line "Soft, sensual and sustainable, it's Cotton USA!".

Advertising regulators received three complaints challenging the term "sustainable", arguing that cotton is a "pesticide- and insecticide- intensive crop" that could "seriously deplete" groundwater supplies where it is grown in the US.