I recently analysed EDF Energy’s latest TV ad and broke down the propaganda to reveal some hidden truths. A fully referenced transcript is below.

In this 'Commercial Break' series I play a current advertisement and break it down to reveal some truths behind the propaganda.

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Today I’m looking at EDF, the energy company wholly owned by the French State who’ve used Bloc Party’s ‘Helicopter’ when perhaps ‘Nuclear’ by Mike Oldfield might be a better fit?

[soundbite: "Experts say there’s more pain in store for energy customers unless there are fundamental changes to the energy system"]

…Ahw, cute kid again, they’re good for PR aren’t they?!

Ok so with that soundbite they’re seemingly setting this up as if to say the changes they’re making will take away the ‘pain’ i.e. the high costs for energy customers.

On the face of it that makes sense. -Wind and solar are forever abundant and give us true energy sovereignty at low cost.

-Dale Vince often cites a study that shows that, 'every £1 spent on renewable energy gets you twice the jobs and twice the GDP growth than a pound spent on fossil fuels as well as giving you a form of energy that is not priced by global markets, meaning we won’t have another energy crisis once we’re 100% green on the grid.’

So this is good, right? -Assuming wind and solar is what they’re talking about, let me check their website, you keep watching…

[Ad plays on]

Ah, found it! Very good, they have this very ad campaign as a whole section on their website.

A headline of the campaign is ‘We're generating more British zero carbon electricity than anyone else’.

Ok better find out what they mean by ‘zero-carbon’ as they haven’t actually stated ‘renewables’ here … I mean nuclear energy is zero-carbon in that it doesn’t emit greenhouse gases during power generation but it does rely on uranium, a non-renewable fuel source obtained from mining that produces radioactive waste which can remain dangerous to human health and the environment for thousands of years.

They clarify by saying, ‘We’re building the infrastructure and generating the zero carbon electricity that Britain needs for a cleaner and more secure future. We're Britain's biggest generator of wind, nuclear and solar electricity combined.(9)’

-With a FOOTNOTE aka small print, but hey that’s great ... a lot of wind, then nuclear then solar. Surely that's why they’ve listed them in that order?

The footnote reads, ‘EDF supply fuel mix: 59.4% nuclear, 21% renewable, 19.6% other fossil fuels’

Nearly 60% Nuclear!

And they also boast on this page that they’re building two new nuclear power stations to make even more!

For context only 12.7% of the UK’s energy comes from nuclear according to the latest official figures from the UK government. (Correct at time of recording according to UK Government website)

And they're only committing 21% in renewables. -That’s less than half of what the UK government's figures show we’re using at 43.2%.

So what this ad should be saying is, ‘use EDF to commit to a much worse mix of renewables than the national average is already utlising’. Wow!

[Ad rolls on]

But it showed solar panels!

[Ad rolls on]

…and wind turbines!

[Ad rolls on]

And …and …and the bloody brass neck on them. (NB: The data presented was correct at the time of recording and first publishing this video in October 2024).

EDF obviously know how unpopular and uncertain nuclear is otherwise this ad would show people working on nuclear reactors rather than on solar panels!

I checked out the Ad agency/PR firms involved in this campaign to see if there’s any light shed on why they're hiding some of these uncomfortable truths...

The ad agencies who devised this propaganda are ‘Lucky Generals’ - who say this is EDF’s biggest ever campaign - and ‘Havas Media’ - who state, 'this campaign will empower EDF to accelerate its sustainability efforts by precisely targeting green audiences at the most impactful moments'.

Jeez: Targeting caring souls to trick them in to supporting a lower mix of renewable power.

Might that be carefully worded bullshit to sound green? Are they using words such as ‘sustainability’ to sound green when what they mean is deceiving green-minded people to sustain their profits?

That's a question. Answers in the comments.

Do you consider yourself part of the green audience that they are targeting? I do.

I'd have thought anyone who is part of that green audience would make a much more positive difference by obtaining their energy from any number of other energy suppliers.

In particular those given ‘Best Buy’ status by the leading ethical ratings organisation, Ethical Consumer Research Association (ECRA): Ecotricity (73), 100Green (70), Good Energy (68), Ripple (68), or a local community energy project if you have one nearby (There are over 500 in the UK). They'd be my recommendations.

-The ECRA scores in brackets are out of 100 for the companies’ ethics, environmental records, energy sourcing and their actual contribution to the generation of renewables.

EDF score 38 out of 100.

Only Utility Warehouse and Sainsburys Energy score lower out of everyone in the UK providing energy.

[Ad rolls to end]

‘Change is in our power’ -That’s a strong and clever tag line, evoking optimism that positive change is possible whilst also implying they are changing their power sources for the good.

If only it were true.

From having read the details it would seem the main change they appear to be making is in ramping up nuclear power generation over renewables.

I’ve had a little read up about nuclear…

There are already 5,600 canisters of radioactive waste stored in the UK according to international consumer-energy transition guide company, ‘GreenMatch’ who say nuclear power plants are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as changes to air and water temperatures, wind speeds and patterns, and rising sea levels, which can decrease their efficiency.

They say nuclear energy has complex issues in the context of environmental sustainability with its drawbacks particularly in regard to radioactive waste and the potential for accidents.

They also say that nuclear plants are significantly more expensive than renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

Another potential issue with nuclear cited by Ethical Consumer magazine is the connection to nuclear weapons. They question whether if lots more countries are going to get nuclear technology in order to decarbonise, might that lead to nuclear weapons proliferation?

God knows … All I know is that I’m glad I’m with Ecotricity!

I'm safe in the knowledge that they use their profits to invest solely in renewable infrastructure.

---Transcript Ends---

The EDF ad campaign and this reaction video are for the UK audience.