EDF Energy Ad Campaign Exposed

[Read on Ethical Revolution]

Are you an EDF energy customer? No, allow me to widen that net: Have you seen any of EDF energy’s mid-late 2024 advertisement campaign?

If so you might be forgiven for thinking they’re changing their ways and looking to spearhead a revolution in renewables.

I decided to dig a little deeper to find out if there was anything more sinister lurking behind their self-aggrandising, ‘biggest-ever’ ad campaign.

Spoiler alert: The truth is something quite different to what the commercials may well have had you believe.

Click here to watch my 7-minute video exposing some inconvenient truths.

The video has a fully referenced transcript in the description with links to all of the information I have cited as well as links to the energy companies certified as Best Buys for a true transition to renewables.

It’s number two of my video series, ‘Commercial Break’, in which I watch an advert, break in to it, break it up and break it down to reveal the truths behind the propaganda.

(The first episode was a low-lit pilot exposing Unilver via their Persil & Comfort TV advert.)

Report EDF to the Advertising Standards Agency

Below is a copy of the info I sent to the ASA to report the misleading advert. Simply go to https://www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html and click the red ‘continue’ button at the bottom of the page to submit a report yourself. Feel free to copy and amend my text as you feel necessary for your own submission. I first saw the advert whilst watching Channel 4 On Demand on 4th October 2024.

NB The text below may render badly as one long paragraph if you’re reading in The Fediverse. Click through to the blog post itself to see it render correctly in succinct paragraphs.

Here is a copy of the advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXwNkDpVi_o

EDF use footage of solar panels and wind turbines in their ad campaign, 'Change is in Our Power', to imply that they are moving towards such forms of energy production. 

Digging down in to the details of the campaign (via the small print on their website) shows that they actually provide only 21% renewable energy, which is less than half of what the UK Government official figures show we currently use (43.2%). 

From EDF's own website on this very campaign: The footnote reads, ‘EDF supply fuel mix: 59.4% nuclear, 21% renewable, 19.6% other fossil fuels’ - https://www.edfenergy.com/change-is-in-our-power#footnote-ciiop-generation
From the UK Government's website the current UK fuel mix is reported as 12.7% Nuclear and 43.2% Renewables. - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fuel-mix-disclosure-data-table/fuel-mix-disclosure-data-table

EDF's own PR firms stated, 'This is EDF’s biggest ever campaign' (Lucky Generals) and, 'this campaign will empower EDF to accelerate its sustainability efforts by precisely targeting green audiences at the most impactful moments' (Havas Media). These quotes can be seen here: https://www.adforum.com/news/edf-shows-that-changing-the-energy-system-is-in-our-power-with-new-brand-platform-and-massive-media-campaign

They are specifically targeting 'green audiences' to offer them a reduction of more than half in the use of renewable energy in comparison to the current national average. It's clear that this advert is hiding the truth behind the actual fuel mix they're providing. 

‘Change is in our power’ is a strong and clever tag line, evoking optimism that positive change is possible whilst also implying they are changing their power sources for the good. It definitely works as a tagline in the context of 'targeting green audiences'. If the actual Energy mix percentages were explicitly stated it would be hard to argue that they'd be able to target those same 'green audiences'.

For these reasons I believe this to be a highly misleading advertisement at best, and certainly worthy of alerting the ASA.

Posted on 11 October 2024