The British Advertising Standards Authority have clamped down on Breitling Energy’s pro-fracking advert, as it misleads readers with unfounded claims of the financial and political benefits of shale gas drilling.
UPDATE: Breitling CEO Chris Faulkner has since complained that the ASA’s reaction to his company’s advert has been blown out of proportion in a Guardian newspaper article.
He said: “This is reflective of what happens in the press, especially related to fracking. This went viral while England was asleep, and the environmentalist community is going ballistic. This is all about objectivity, and the ASA is both judge and jury. If this was an ad in The Guardian instead of an article, I’d file a complaint against them for a violation of the ASA’s CAP code for misrepresentation, exaggeration and substantiation.”
Breitling’s head of communication,Thomas Miller, also weighed in: “You have to love the British press. Fracking and sex. The Guardian editors sure know a good news story when they see one. You can see by what they chose to run and not run, how the media has over-controlled this debate… There is no news value there whatsoever… If this isn’t media bias 101, nothing is.”
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