The advertising watchdog has criticised an anti-wind farm campaign group for using images of Hawaii.

Communities Against Turbines in Scotland ran a regional press ad campaign showing a picturesque Scottish landscape blighted by rusty, broken wind turbines, with a banner headline, "Welcome to Scotland".

Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, was also criticised within the campaign for wanting to build "8,750 of these monstrosities".

A compliant that the ad was misleading and inaccurate was made to Advertising Standards Authority by Scottish Renewabless, which represents the renewable energy industry in Scotland.

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An image was used of a wind farm in Hawaii that had been built in 1987 and had been decommissioned in 2006. The model of turbine was so old there was not any chance that it could ever be used in Scotland.

The anti-wind turbine campaigning body, which is known by the acronym Trump, admitted that the photograph was not of Scotland but claimed it was "illustrative" of what could happen if the government took its renewable energy policy forward.

In addition the ASA said that the Scottish government's policy document stated that by 2020 there might be a maximum of 5,645 onshore and offshore turbines – well below the campaigning group's advertising claim of 8,750.

The ASA banned the ad campaign and told the campaigning group not to exaggerate claims in future ads.

(H)