French Car Ads Will Now Advise People To Consider Greener Modes of Transportation
With messages including “Choose walking or cycling” and “Think about carpooling.”
Car advertisements in France will now encourage consumers to take more environmentally-friendly modes of transportation.
A decree published in the French government’s Journal Officiel last week laid out messages that car advertisements need to include beginning in March: “For short trips, choose walking or cycling”, “Think about carpooling”, and “For daily travel, take public transportation.”
The messages need to be easily readable or audible and clearly distinguishable, the government says, in digital, print, radio, movie and TV ads that reference car travel. A designated hashtag, #SeDéplacerMoinsPolluer (#MoveAndPolluteLess), has also been created to help drive the message.
“Decarbonizing transport means not just switching to an electric vehicle. It also means using, when possible, public transportation or cycling,” France’s Minister of Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, tweeted. Automobile manufacturers will also have to specify which emissions class a car that is being advertised belongs to.
The new rules add on to existing legislation introduced in 2019. According to LeMonde, advertisers that do not comply with the new rules are subject to a penalty of up to €50,000 EUR.
France has been adopting more environmentally-friendly measures to combat climate change. In July, France’s parliament approved a sweeping climate bill, though some environmental activists said it failed to take enough action.
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