Who: Advertising Standards Authority (ASA); Aramco Overseas Oil Company BV (Aramco)
Where: United Kingdom
When: 9 July 2025
Law stated as at: 12 August 2025
What happened:
The ASA declined to uphold a complaint against Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil and gas company, in relation to three social media ads announcing its partnership with the Aston Martin Formula One (F1) team.
Two ads contained an image of an F1 car with Aramco branding, accompanied by text about researching ultra-efficient hybrid internal combustion engines and advanced fuels. A third ad featured a video of an F1 car with a voice-over making various statements such as “Answers aren’t always straightforward” and “Our world is driven by questions”. The voiceover included the questions “How can we pioneer fuel that could lower emissions?” and “How can we help with global net zero targets?”.
The complainant argued that the ads were misleading by omitting significant information about the environmental impact of Aramco’s business as a whole, and because the basis of the claim “advanced fuels” was not clear.
Aramco argued that the ads should be considered as advertising the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team, rather than Aramco’s entire business activity. The ASA agreed, finding that consumers would understand the ads to be focused on the partnership, and as such, considered the ads in that context.
The ASA found that the claims in the two image-based ads referred to new technologies in F1 and road cars, and did not refer to any environmental benefit of such technologies. In contrast, the video ad referenced the environment, by asking “How can we pioneer fuel that could lower emissions? and “How can we help with global net zero targets?”, but these were considered incidental to the substance of the ad, which was predominantly focused on how the partnership would improve car performance. As such, the questions would be seen as forward-looking questions regarding Aramco’s ambition, rather than making any claims about Aramco’s current business activities.
With regard to the second complaint, concerning the use of “advanced fuels”, the ASA concluded that, in the context of the ads, consumers would interpret advanced fuels to relate to the performance of the F1 car and not any environmental benefit. The ads linked through to a page on Aramco’s website about the fuels, but, since the ads did not reference the environment, the ASA considered that further clarification of the term was not required.
As such, the ads were found not to breach the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct and Promotional Marketing (CAP Code), including the rules specifying that the basis of environmental claims, and the meaning of any terms used, must be clear to consumers (rules 11.1 and 11.2).
Why this matters:
Despite the ongoing work by the ASA on greenwashing, including recent rulings focusing on businesses in high-carbon industries, this ruling demonstrates that the ASA will not infer environmental claims where none are explicitly made.
The decision is significant for advertisers promoting sports tie-ups and other sponsorships which involve companies with substantial environmental footprints. Advertisers should ensure that such ads are appropriately focused on the subject of the partnership to reduce the likelihood of ASA scrutiny of the wider business activities of the sponsoring company. The decision also coincided with a debate in the UK parliament in July 2025 on the banning of fossil fuel advertising across the UK, including sponsorships of museums, sport and other events. During the debate, the government confirmed that it does not currently have plans to regulate further in this area and ban or restrict fossil fuel advertising, stating that an outright ban could lead to the collapse of “incredibly important organisations” that rely on sponsorship.
