Climate ads pulled in U.K.

Nursery rhyme-themed ads commissioned by the British government that ask people to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions are being pulled from print. The ads, which had pictures from popular children’s stories and the headlines "Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub, a necessary course of action due to flash flooding caused by climate change,” and “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,” were called misleading by the country’s Advertising Standards Authority. The watchdog received 939 complaints about the campaign, and ordered the ads to be pulled because they “should have been phrased more tentatively” since the connection between flooding and drought is difficult to directly link to climate change. Ed Milliband, U.K. secretary for climate change, defended the ads, saying “"We used everyday language which others have used also to say this will happen," but adding that “we probably should have made clearer the basis of the claim”

CBC News