Britain's advertising watchdog says these two ads, commissioned by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, are misleading in their claims about the effects of carbon-dioxide emissions. (DECC website)

The British government is being forced to pull two advertisements about climate change that have been ruled misleading by the country's advertising watchdog.

The nursery rhyme-themed ads were part of the Department of Energy and Climate Change's "Act on CO2" print campaign, urging people to reduce their carbon footprint.

One of the rejected ads depicted three men floating in a bathtub alongside partly submerged cars and houses, with the headline "Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub, a necessary course of action due to flash flooding caused by climate change."

The other ad showed a boy and girl searching for water, with the line “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.”

Both ads warned that "It's our children who'll really pay the price of climate change" and called on readers to visit the DECC's "Act on CO2" website.

Ads not 'tentative' enough

The Advertising Standards Authority, which decides what is and is not acceptable in British advertising, received 939 complaints about those ads and others in the campaign, including a television ad and two more print ads.

'We used everyday language which others have used also to say this will happen.'—British climate change secretary Ed Milliband

In their review, released Wednesday, the ASA found the claims of extreme flooding and drought in the two ads "should have been phrased more tentatively" because of the lack of certain proof that such events are caused by climate change.

As a result, the ads breached clauses relating to substantiation, truthfulness and environmental claims as described in by the Committee of Advertising Practice and were ordered pulled.

The ASA rejected complaints about the other ads, including that they caused "fear and distress" for those who saw them.

Government defends ads

Britain's climate change secretary, Ed Milliband, accepted the criticism but defended the campaign.

"We used everyday language which others have used also to say this will happen," Milliband said. "And we probably should have made clearer the basis of the claim, and I accept that."

At the same time, Milliband said, "the ASA has comprehensively vindicated the accuracy of the TV advert we made and rebuffed those who attempted to use the advertising standards process to question the reality of man-made climate change."