Fighting Back With Facts (FBWF) has welcomed the recent ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that an advert for the Wood Window Alliance (WWA) breached the ASA’s Code by creating a misleading impression of timber’s environmental performance. FBWF would like to congratulate the British Plastics Federation (BPF) for bringing the case to the attention of the ASA and sincerely hopes that this marks the beginning of a new chapter for the BPF – one which will see the Federation take a much more assertive stance in defence of PVC-U.

The ASA has ruled that two claims made by the WWA advert were ambiguous and “implied that plastic and aluminium had a much lower rating than wood in terms of their overall environmental impact.” It goes on to note that this implication is entirely false observing how, in fact, PVC-U achieved the same overall rating in the Green Guide as wood. It concludes that the advertisement breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 19.1 (Other comparisons) and 49.1 (Environmental claims) and ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form.

The ruling can be read in full at by clicking here.

FBWF has argued the PVC-U industry has historically been both slow and ineffective in countering misleading attacks and inaccurate claims by rival products. In a buoyant market perhaps we thought we could afford to be complacent. One thing is clear – we certainly cannot afford to be so any more! The economic downturn means parts of the market supplying new-build housing have already shrunk by up to 60%. As an industry, we cannot afford to let rival materials continue to encroach on our market on the back of false claims and misinformation. We need to be strong in our defence of PVC-U. The ASA ruling marks an important victory. PVC-U has won the first of many battles. Looking ahead, FBWF is keen to continue working alongside the BPF to ensure we now go on to win the war.

Click to download our free Fighting Back Factsheet