Trump's Anti-Wind Ad Gets Trumped by UK Advertising Standards Authority
The Trump Organization and Communities Against Turbines Scotland (CATS) had a bit of a setback in their anti-wind campaigns this week, as one of their ads was banned from publication in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The ad campaign featured an image of rusty and neglected-looking wind turbines below the headline "Welcome to Scotland", and featured the text, "Alex Salmond wants to build 8,750 of these monstrosities - think about it." below it, along with information on a rally that CATS is hosting.
The problem is, those dilapidated wind turbines aren't anywhere near Scotland - they're from a wind power site in Hawaii that was decommissioned after 20 years of service. For astute readers, there is a small disclaimer on the bottom of the ad which says "Photo not taken in Scotland" in tiny text (easy to miss at a casual glance, what with the word TRUMP written across the bottom in large text).
And then there's the claim of the 8,750 wind turbines that the ad says are going to be built. The exaggerated claim for the number of renewable energy "monstrosities" came from some fancy number-shuffling from CATS, and misleads readers to think that those figures are from official government statements.
Thanks to the quick thinking of Scottish Renewables, the ASA investigated the offending ad and found that it breached their code by being misleading and lacking substantiation. The decision of the ASA about the Trump Group and CATS ads:
"The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Trump and CATS to ensure that the pictures they used in future ads reflected the types of turbines likely to be used in Scotland, and not to exaggerate the number of turbines likely to be installed or the possible consequences of the Scottish Government's plans to use wind turbines." - ASA
Source: Treehugger.com. The ad in question is pictured at the source.
So this is the first salvo in Trumps anti-wind farm campaign to save Scotland? Fail, Mr. Trump.
The ad campaign featured an image of rusty and neglected-looking wind turbines below the headline "Welcome to Scotland", and featured the text, "Alex Salmond wants to build 8,750 of these monstrosities - think about it." below it, along with information on a rally that CATS is hosting.
The problem is, those dilapidated wind turbines aren't anywhere near Scotland - they're from a wind power site in Hawaii that was decommissioned after 20 years of service. For astute readers, there is a small disclaimer on the bottom of the ad which says "Photo not taken in Scotland" in tiny text (easy to miss at a casual glance, what with the word TRUMP written across the bottom in large text).
And then there's the claim of the 8,750 wind turbines that the ad says are going to be built. The exaggerated claim for the number of renewable energy "monstrosities" came from some fancy number-shuffling from CATS, and misleads readers to think that those figures are from official government statements.
Thanks to the quick thinking of Scottish Renewables, the ASA investigated the offending ad and found that it breached their code by being misleading and lacking substantiation. The decision of the ASA about the Trump Group and CATS ads:
"The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Trump and CATS to ensure that the pictures they used in future ads reflected the types of turbines likely to be used in Scotland, and not to exaggerate the number of turbines likely to be installed or the possible consequences of the Scottish Government's plans to use wind turbines." - ASA
Source: Treehugger.com. The ad in question is pictured at the source.
So this is the first salvo in Trumps anti-wind farm campaign to save Scotland? Fail, Mr. Trump.