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  Punishing the Gas Guzzlers: Brussels Plans Crackdown on Car Advertising

Punishing the Gas Guzzlers Brussels Plans Crackdown on Car Advertising

By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp in Brussels

Part 2: Moral Terrorism?

And now this "moral terrorism," as Holger Krahmer, a liberal member of the European Parliament, calls it, is about to reach what is perhaps Europe's most sensitive and possibly most important industrial product: the automobile. Legislators hope that strict advertising regulations can achieve what a network of very low speed limit zones, speed limits on most major highways, ever-rising gas prices, taxes and fines could not. In many countries, activists are already drumming up popular sentiment against automobile manufacturers who include only inconspicuous or no information about their vehicles' emissions and fuel economy in their ads. Last fall, the European Parliament came up with a rule critics were happy with: 20 percent of any car ad should be devoted to information about CO2 emissions and fuel consumption.

This information was supposed to be included in ads starting in 1999. According to Appendix IV to Guideline 1999/94, it was to be "easily legible and no less pronounced than the main part of the advertising message" and "easily understood, even when read briefly." But for years the industry paid little attention to the regulation. Environmentalists recently complained to Günter Hörmandinger, the EU official in charge of the planned automobile advertising guidelines, about a particularly egregious example. A seven-meter (23-foot) billboard advertising a luxury car brand printed the required fuel consumption and emissions information in letters just seven millimeters (0.25 inches) tall -- in other words, illegible. This sort of thing cannot continue, say the environmentalists.

Such strategies have only given the industry's foes ammunition. Carmakers and their advertising agencies have also failed to take advantage of the opportunity that EU Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas provided for voluntary "self-regulation" to develop a convincing alternative model.

All of this has led to a significant outcry. Executives like VW marketing manager Jochen Sengpiehl say that newspaper advertising would become completely ineffective if it were required to include informational banners or boxes. If ads were "turned into informational material" it would be "highly likely" that companies would be forced to restructure their advertising budgets, Sengpiehl and other executives warn. This would mean a shift away from classic print ads and toward TV commercials or promotional events, which are not subject to any restrictive regulations.

According to Christoph Fiedler of the German magazine publishers' association, this would be a "catastrophe" for print media, especially in Germany. Carmakers spend about €1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) on advertising in Germany, with almost half of that money going to ads in magazines. What Brussels is planning, says Mathias Döpfner, CEO of publishing giant Axel Springer, would be a "major threat to free competition and journalism."

These dramatic warnings of possible economic and political consequences have apparently had their effect on European Commission President Barroso, who prefers to avoid a second car war with Berlin (the conflict over CO2 emissions caps beginning in 2012 has yet to be resolved). It could adversely affect his chances of securing a second term.

This is why his staff have been busy softening some of the proposed advertising guidelines, toning down the most stringent language and requirements, says an EU official involved in the process. Of course, this is only being done for tactical reasons.

In fact, a broad majority of officials on both the Commission and in the European Parliament is convinced that the tenacious pursuit of more and more protections against calories, alcohol and the dangers of driving is both popular and an ethical obligation.

At least, that is, as far as Europeans are concerned. Everyone else in the world can drive at high speeds, smoke and drink to their hearts' content. In fact, to encourage the rest of the world to drink more European wine, Brussels generously subsidizes colorful, happy liquor ads in foreign markets.

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