“Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. There was none as extreme weather due to climate change had caused a drought.”A British government ad campaign sponsored by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is facing scrutiny by the UK government watchdog, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Two of the ads, which are intended to warn about the purported dangers of man made climate change, were found to have unsubstantiated claims in them. The two offending ads were based on the nursery rhymes of ‘Jack and Jill’ and ‘Rub a Dub Dub’, and warned of the effects of extreme weather, a claim which has long been disputed.
"Rub a dub dub three men in a tub, a necessary course of action due to flash flooding caused by climate change."
The ASA says the DECC made exaggerated claims about the threat to Britain from global warming and the ads were beyond mainstream scientific consensus.
When asked about the claim, a spokesperson from ASA noted that, "Many of those who complained found the ads would be distressing to children and many objected to the implication that climate change is caused by human activity."
Two other not-so-controversial ads facing less scrutiny are based on the nursery rhymes of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,' and 'Hey Diddle Diddle,' and read as follows:
"Twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, looking down at dangerously high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere."
"Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon on discovering just how easy it was to reduce our CO2 emissions."
Whatever the claim, whatever the scrutiny... aside from the fact that the ad agency responsible for creating these ads is horrible at rhyming and could really (i mean, really!) use some more creativity in keeping with the theme, I absolutely love them!
If you are interested in viewing the controversial advertisements, click here and enjoy!
