ASA publishes guidance for green claims in advertising; Microsoft to invest £2.5bn in UK’s AI infrastructure

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 29th Nov 2023 in News

In today’s ExchangeWire digest: ASA publishes guidance for green claims in advertising; Microsoft to invest £2.5bn in UK’s AI infrastructure; Google update to mark-up profile page and discussion forum structured data in search results…

ASA publishes guidance for green claims in advertising

The ASA’s latest research surrounding green claims in advertising found that participants “broadly treated green claims uncritically”, which they found risked consumers having an oversimplified understanding of terms used in brands’ advertising. There were widespread calls among participants for stronger transparency about the length of time a product described as “biodegradable” takes to degrade, as well as the importance of providing clear information about the disposal of product parts.

Supported by the research findings, the ASA has released an Advertising Guidance report. Among the guidelines is the direction that environmental claims must be based on the full lifecycle of an advertised product or service (unless stated otherwise), and absolute claims should be supported by a high level of substantiation – for example, claims such as “greener” would require verifiable evidence that proves an environmental benefit over comparable products.

Microsoft to invest £2.5bn in UK’s AI infrastructure

As part of a raft of overseas investments unveiled by the UK government at this week’s Global Investment Summit, Microsoft has pledged a sum of £2.5bn to build out the UK’s AI infrastructure. The investment will bring more data centres and graphics processing units to the region. The details regarding the time period of the investment have not yet been revealed. A Microsoft spokesperson said that “the acceleration in AI capabilities and customer demand for AI services requires significant investment in UK infrastructure”.

Google update to mark-up profile page and discussion forum structured data in search results

In an update, Google announced support for profile page and discussion forum structured data on its search engine. Its Profile Page markup is designed to mark-up first person perspectives from social media platforms, forums, and any other sites where creators share first-hand perspectives. Google Search will be able to better identify information about the creator, such as their name/social handle, profile photo, or follower count. Meanwhile, its Discussion Forum Posting markup is designed for any forum-style site on which people collectively share first-hand perspectives. Its search engine will better identify forum sites and online discussions across the web.