The advertising watchdog has said that PG Tips has successfully shown the infusion of tea leaves in its pyramid-shaped bags was more efficient than in round tea bags.
It made the ruling after Tata Global Beverages, the makers of Tetley, complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about a PG Tips TV advert starring Johnny Vegas and his sock puppet monkey. Tetley said the advertisement, which showed the difference in ‘brewing power’ between a pyramid and a round tea bag, was exaggerated and misleading to viewers.
However, the ASA has ruled that the pyramid tea bag – invented in 1997 by Brooke Bond, the then parent company of PG Tips – did in fact have ‘better brewing efficiency’.
It stated: We considered consumers would interpret the visual demonstration to be a representation of a simple consumer experiment and would not interpret it as a representation of a detailed scientific test.
We considered consumers would interpret the demonstration to mean that, in general, a pyramid tea bag was more efficient at brewing tea than a round tea bag.
Unilever provided test results which showed that the infusion of tea, at 40 seconds and two minutes into brewing, was greater when using a pyramid tea bag than when using a round tea bag.
We therefore concluded that the advertisement did not exaggerate the capability and performance of the advertised product and was not misleading.
The ASA added: We considered consumers would interpret the claim ‘the tea has more room to move, freeing the great fresh taste’ to mean that the shape of the tea bag would allow more tea, and therefore taste, to be released.
Unilever provided relevant modelling and measurements to demonstrate that the tea in the pyramid tea bag would have more room to move, and, as mentioned (above) Unilever had provided evidence to demonstrate that the pyramid tea bag had a greater brewing efficiency than the round tea bag.
The ASA continued by saying: We understood that several brands of tea bags on the market were round in shape. While a large portion of round tea bags were owned by Tetley, we considered that consumers would not immediately identify a round tea bag as being a Tetley tea bag.
Because we considered that the comparison was not made with an identifiable competitor, we concluded that the advertisement did not denigrate Tetley.
Source: Telegraph/ASA/Unilever
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