Advertising claims about the environmental benefits of products ("environmentally friendly", "sustainable", "climate neutral", "recyclable", etc.) are to be more strictly regulated. With the "Green Claims Directive" or "Directive on Environmental Claims", the EU plans to make companies more accountable in the fight against greenwashing. This means that advertising promises about the sustainability of products and services must also be truthful in order to inform consumers instead of confusing them.
If corresponding laws come into force in Germany, companies will risk severe penalties if they make false and unverifiable statements about the sustainability of their products. The Publicis Groupe spoke out against greenwashing back in 2009 and firmly anchored this in its corporate policy. So that its customers can identify and avoid risks more quickly in the future without completely eliminating sustainability aspects from their communication (greenhushing), the Publicis Group is now also relying on artificial intelligence (AI).
All agencies of the Publicis Groupe have the anti-greenwashing AI developed by Publicis Sapient. The tool is based on the nine rules of the ARPP (Autorité de Régulation Professionnelle de la Publicité) in France, an authority for self-regulation of the advertising industry whose regulations for sustainable development and communication are considered to be the strictest in Europe. In the future, the tool will also be expanded to include the EU Green Claims Directive and will now also be used for German-language campaigns.
Project teams from Publicis agencies can use the tool's interface to upload both text and image formats and have them checked in just a few seconds. The AI analyzes advertising slogans, wording and imagery for sustainability statements. In doing so, it understands the connections between the motifs shown, such as products or people, and the respective positive or negative environmental impacts. As a result, it provides critical information on which sustainability promises should be explained or supported with additional facts. The project teams can discuss the results with customers and thus ensure that all advertising formats are transparent and clearly understandable.
Customers can thus position their sustainable products and services even better on the market and promote sustainable consumption.
"Using AI for sustainability communication helps us in two ways," says Philippe Bordet, Chief Financial Officer and Head of Sustainability at Publicis Groupe DACH. "First, we want to support our customers in promoting sustainable products and services. Greenwashing is and remains a real problem in our industry, but greenhushing - concealing sustainability factors for fear of a scandal - prevents consumers from making sustainable purchasing decisions at all. Second, by regularly using the anti-greenwashing AI, our teams learn which formulations and representations to pay attention to and are automatically trained in sustainable communication. In the end, consumers benefit because they receive transparent and understandable information on the sustainability of products and services and can make more informed decisions - for more sustainable consumption."
