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It is estimated that 64% of Mexican consumers are more cautious in their sustainable spending.
Currently 76% of people are switching to sustainable products.
It is recorded that in the world eight out of 10 consumers prefer sustainable products.
The impact of a message in advertising can be of great interest and influence on people. That is why the content or everything that is disseminated in these spaces must be of high quality, for this reason Europe presented a project to force companies to undergo an independent certification process to validate their products as sustainable and ecological. and thus avoid misleading environmental advertising.
Misleading advertising is a form of promotion that has increased with the arrival of the internet, especially social networks, where there is still no filter that verifies everything that is published in these media. In this sense, specialists define that misleading advertising is one that, in an effort to sell more, falsifies or misrepresents information, promises unverifiable qualities, touts as the only characteristics of the product that it actually shares with all its kind.
In Mexico, the Federal Consumer Attorney’s Office (Profeco) can penalize companies that engage in misleading advertising practices that affect consumers.
In this sense, many countries also have sanctions against this type of advertising in their laws, since it does have a great economic and financial impact for a brand. But the credibility, trust and prestige of the products indicated by this practice remains on the ground.
Against misleading environmental advertising in Europe
Through a project, the European Commission proposes to prohibit brands in that market from continuing to use greenwashing or misleading advertising, placing labels on their products that are sustainable or ecological.
With this project, officials seek that the companies that actually manage to meet this quota certify it through independent organizations, thus verifying that they comply with criteria of sustainability and respect for the environment.
The commission in charge highlighted that to carry out said project, they studied a sample of 150 containers and the advertising of products sold in Europe during the 2020 period, where the investigation showed that 53 percent of these showed information that was “vague, misleading or unfounded”.
The committee specialists highlighted that 40 percent made “totally unfounded” statements on their labels, in order to increase their visibility to consumers.
In the investigation, the commission shared that some examples were T-shirts made from recycled plastic bottles and packaging made from 30 percent recycled plastic.
“First of all, we want consumers to get reliable, consistent and verifiable information,” Virginijus Sinkevičius, the European environment commissioner, told a news conference.
Likewise, it was also identified that there are at least 230 different labels that offer supposed ecological credentials of a product and generate confusion and distrust in consumers.
As part of the investigation, officials propose to solve the problem by unifying existing labeling criteria and banning new schemes.
The project is currently in a process of approval by the European Parliament and the Council for it to enter into force.
Let’s remember that the concept of greenwashing is being widely used and this consists of directing the marketing image of an organization or a company towards an ecological position, while its actions go against the environment.
All this is due to new consumer trends that consider that brands should take strong actions to care for the environment, so they support and follow what they do.
And according to the Future Consumer Index study carried out by EY, current consumers show greater concern and actions in favor of the planet and as a consequence are altering their behaviors and patterns to consume more sustainable products.
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