A graphic anti-air travel advertisement featuring polar bears falling to the deaths from the sky has been dismissed as "blatent scaremongering".

The online and cinema ad by protest group Plane Stupid claims that every short-haul flight emits four hundred kgs of carbon dioxide - the equivalent weight of an adult polar bear - is also to be referred to the advertising standards watchdog.

Michelle Di Leo, Director of FlyingMatters, the aviation pressure group, said the ad was scaremongering and would backfire.

“Half the population have friends and family who live abroad. Using shock tactics to make them feel guilty about flying to see those friends and family will alienate them.

“The best way of dealing with aviation’s impact on the climate is through a combination of technology, sustainable bio-fuels and emissions. 

“That’s why the UK industry has thrown its full weight behind government efforts to secure a global deal for aviation at Copenhagen.”

Meanwhile MEP Godfrey Bloom intends to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority. He said: “This is a graphic and hysterical advert which will cause unnecessary distress and alarm.”

Stansted protesters 'missed the big picture' (11 Dec 2008)
Plane Stupid protesters scale Parliament roof (27 Feb 2008)
Peaks Threatened by Green Activists (1 Dec 2006)