In October 2022, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) – the UK advertising watchdog, banned a series of climate-orientated adverts by HSBC for misleading the public. The ads were centred around the message, “climate change doesn’t do borders, neither do we” in reference to the bank’s tree planting and net zero financing goals. However, the watchdog concluded that the adverts failed to disclose material information regarding HSBC’s financing of projects that many experts argue contribute to the climate crisis.
Now, whether the adverts accurately portrayed reality, or indeed mislead the public is not for us to say. However, we can...