Cruise line ad banned over sustainability claim

An ad for cruise line HX Hurtigruten Expeditions (HX) has been banned for misleadingly claiming that its trips were sustainable.

The online ad in a national newspaper in March stated: “Selected Svalbard cruises with free flights. Since 1896, we’ve been the leaders in sustainable expeditions.”

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received a complaint that the claim “sustainable expeditions” gave a misleading impression of the trips’ environmental impact.

HX said the average consumer would not read the claim “sustainable expeditions” as including flights, and would have interpreted it to refer only to the cruise component of the trip.

That being the case, the claim would have been understood as meaning HX’s expedition cruises – excluding flights – were sustainable.

They said the claim “sustainable” did not mean the cruises had no environmental impact whatsoever, but that it was relatively low in the context of other cruise lines.

The company said it launched the world’s first hybrid electric cruise ship, and used quiet ships to preserve the environments they visited.

They also donated cruise nights for scientific researchers to support projects that included underwater drone surveys of fish spawning grounds, penguin colony monitoring and studying humpback whale behaviour and genetics.

The ASA said “sustainable expeditions” was an absolute claim, which would be understood as referring to the full life cycle of an HX holiday, including travel to and from the destination.

It said air travel, such as that required to take an HX cruise, produced high levels of both CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, which were making a substantial contribution to climate change.

It said: “We considered the measures taken by HX did not relate to the claim, and that because they had not taken the aforementioned emissions into account, the absolute claim ‘sustainable expeditions’ had not been adequately substantiated.

“Because the basis of the claim had not been made clear and we had not seen evidence based on the full life cycle of the product to support the absolute claim ‘sustainable expeditions’ as it would be understood by consumers, we concluded the ad had misleadingly minimised the impact of HX’s holidays and therefore breached the Code.”

It ruled the ad must not appear again, and told HX “to ensure the basis of future environmental claims was made clear and did not give a misleading impression of their expeditions’ environmental impact, and that robust substantiation was held to support them”.

An HX Hurtigruten Expeditions spokesman said: “Whilst we are disappointed with the outcome, we respect the ASA’s role in maintaining advertising integrity.

“Our team never intended to create a misleading message and remain wholly committed to championing sustainability in the expedition cruise sector.

“We understand that specific wording in this standalone advert could have been clearer, and we will continue to ensure our communications accurately reflect our sustainability efforts.”