Typical!

"TOYOTA ZERO EMISSIONS AD RULED MISLEADING

Brussels, 17 June 2008 - An advert for the Toyota Prius in the
European
Voice newspaper which breached the European car labelling directive,
has
today been ruled misleading by the Belgian advertising standards
authority.

Friends of the Earth Europe's car efficiency campaigner, Jeroen
Verhoeven,
filed a complaint against the advertisement which showed an image of a
Toyota Prius and included the words 'Zero emissions low'. The
advertisement
did not contain any CO2 emission or fuel consumption data, as is
obliged
under Belgian law, and thus violated European labelling directive
1999/94/EC.

An initial complaint filed to the Belgian Jury d'Ethique Publicitaire
(JEP)
on the grounds that the advert breached the directive prompted the
response
that according to the jury's reading of the advert 'this car does not
have
any CO2 emissions'. Subsequently, Mr Verhoeven filed a second
complaint
about the misleading nature of the advert, citing the JEP's own
misreading
as evidence.

According to Jeroen Verhoeven, this case is just one example of a
massive
'misinformation campaign' by carmakers. "Car manufacturers are using
'greenwash' advertising to confuse consumers whilst at the same time
blocking EU proposals for a target of 120g CO2/km by 2012. If Toyota
is
serious about reaching 'zero emissions' anytime soon then why are they
blocking a 2012 target?" he said.

Following evidence that the majority of car advertisements do not
comply
with the European car labelling directive, Friends of the Earth Europe
and
several other campaign groups have formed the Advertise CO2 coalition
which
aims to put pressure on carmakers to provide comprehensive fuel
consumption
and CO2 emission data to consumers.

"If carmakers genuinely want to reduce fuel consumption, they need to
respect the legal requirements and give comprehensive CO2 emissions
information in their advertisements as a minimum," added Mr
Verhoeven."

For more information see www.advertiseco2.eu