Sierra Club, CAPP both claim victory in ad ruling

TheSierra Club and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers are both claiming victory after the advertising standards watchdogruled that an oilsands ad was not misleading.

The Sierra Club, an environmental protection group, filed the complaint over a CAPP-sponsored ad that compared the consistency of sludge intailing ponds to yogurt.

"It's essentially like yogurt and, if left on its own, would take decades to settle,"Suncor Energy Inc. engineer Shelley Powell says in the original version of the ad.

"I was actually watching television and this ad came on and it just jolted my sense of justice," John Bennett,executive director of Sierra Club Canada, told CBC News.

'This ad came on and it just jolted my sense of justice.' John Bennett, Sierra Club Canada

"The tailings do not contain yogurt," he said in an interview, "They contain a whole bunch of hydrocarbons and toxic materials and heavy metals, and for them to put forward that this is yogurt and it's OK, we'll complain again."

Advertising Standards Canada vice-president Janet Feasby told CBC News she was unable to comment on the group's decision, as it did not uphold the complaint.

However, part of the text of a letter Feasby wrote to CAPP and the Sierra Club was provided to CBC News by the environmental group.

"It should be noted, however, that Council's decision was not unanimous. Council was pleased; therefore, to learn from the advertiser this commercial had been withdrawn and replaced by another that does not make reference to yogurt," Feasby wrote to the parties.

Revised adto run'within days'

CAPP spokesperson Janet Annesley told CBC News a revised ad willrun on national television "within days."

'We have modified the ad to omit the reference to yogurt.' Janet Annesley, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers

"Despite aggressive activist positioning and campaigning, Advertising Standards Canada has found that CAPP's advertisement about tailings reclamation is not misleading in any way," she said in an interview.

But the new version of the ad does not containthe yogurt comparison.

"We have modified the ad to omit the reference to yogurt. We want no distraction to the important environmental performance story being told," she said.

The new version of the ad