The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has clamped down on adverts from holiday companies over environmental claims it deemed misleading.
Using an AI-powered Active Ad Monitoring system, the regulator ruled that adverts by both Thomas Cook and Loveholidays breached advertising rules because terms such as ‘eco resort’ and ‘eco hotel’ were not adequately explained.
The regulator determined that potential holidaymakers could take the adverts to mean that the accommodation had environmental characteristics or benefits.
However, customers were not provided with enough information in the ads to know what such features would be.
In the end, it was decided the adverts should be amended or taken down completely.
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