The advert claimed "wool is just as cruel as fur".
An advert for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) urging people to stop wearing wool has been banned for being misleading.
The advert, which was displayed on buses in February, claimed that “wool is just as cruel as fur” and urged people to “to go wool-free this winter”.
Ten complaints were submitted to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the advert, saying that wool could not be compared to the fur trade as sheep needed to be shorn for health reasons.
Following an investigation, the ASA has now banned the advert and ordered PETA to avoid using the phrase “wool is just as cruel as fur” in any future communications.
Its ruling stated: “We considered people who saw the ad would interpret the claim ‘wool is just as cruel as fur’ as equating the conditions in which sheep were kept and the methods by which wool was obtained with the conditions and methods used in the fur industry.
“However, sheep were not killed for their wool as animals were in the fur industry and there were standards in place relating to their general welfare including relating to the shearing process. We therefore concluded on that basis that the claim was misleading and in breach of the Code.”
PETA said it was disappointed by the ruling, and continues to claim that abuses seen in the fur trade have also been recorded in the wool industry. The charity presented evidence of these claims to the ASA, including reports and video footage of abuse to sheep carried out by farmers and instances where individuals had been charged for cruelty towards their animals.
Elisa Allen, PETA director, said: “The general public now understands that the fur industry is cruel to animals in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, gratuitous violence by industry workers, genetically manipulating animals in ways that cause them distress, leaving them to suffer from horrific wounds, and slaughtering them for human gain – and all this suffering has been documented in the wool trade, too.
“PETA provided the Advertising Standards Authority with stacks of evidence backing this up, so its decision is both confusing and disappointing. Nevertheless, we'll continue to urge decent people to steer clear of wool, and we have plans to run a modified version of the ad in numerous cities this winter.”
The new version of the advert will include the phrase “wool = cruelty to sheep,” the charity said.
