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'Misleading' Heathrow ad banned for promoting expansion

An advertisement promoting the construction of a third runway at Heathrow Airport has been banned after being marked as “misleading”.

The ad provided statistics claiming 50% of those living around the airport were in favour of expansion and 33% were opposed, according to a survey of 10,000 residents in 10 constituencies taken late last year.

Heathrow Airport said that “contrary to some people’s perceptions” Chiswick and Richmond were not the only areas affected by Heathrow. It said the poll was limited to 10 constituencies for budgetary reasons but it focused on the areas most affected by the airport, in terms of noise, and those that were most vocal about the airport’s operations, or had MPs who strongly opposed expansion.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the headline was “misleading” and that most readers would understand it to claim to mean that a clear majority of those surveyed were pro-expansion.

The authority said: “While we acknowledged that the survey showed that 50% of respondents were pro-expansion and 50% were against, or neither supported nor opposed, expansion … we considered that the ad implied that the proportion of locals in favour of support was greater than 50%.

“Therefore, we considered that the headline claim misleadingly exaggerated the level of support for expansion.”

In addition, the authority recognised that three areas bordering Heathrow’s Hayes and Harlington constituency were not included in the survey.

A spokesman for the airport said: “Heathrow disputes the ASA’s ruling on what constitutes ‘backing’ as there is strong and vocal support for Heathrow expansion both around the airport and across the UK.

“The poll in question, concluding that over 50% of residents back expansion, clearly showed that there was more support for Heathrow than opposition.”

The ASA continued: “Because we had concerns that most readers would interpret the ad to mean that individuals living in the 10 constituencies closest to Heathrow Airport, in terms of proximity, were in favour of expansion, and Heathrow had not provided evidence to confirm that that was the case, we considered that the claim had not been substantiated.

“For those reasons, we concluded that the claim exaggerated the level of support for expansion, had not been substantiated and was misleading.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .