ASA Adjudication on Pizza Hut (UK) Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for Pizza Hut opened with a family entering a Pizza Hut restaurant. As they sat down around a table, a voiceover stated "Step out of the office Dad, it's called overtime, not all the time". As a waitress placed a pizza on the table the voiceover continued "So sit down at Pizza Hut for the new Cheesy Bites pizza. 28 cheese heads with beautiful toupees of garlic butter. Play with them, rip them, squeeze them …".

Issue

One viewer, who had tried the Cheesy Bites pizza and found that it was not topped with garlic butter, but had been sprayed with garlic flavouring, challenged whether the ad misrepresented the product.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Wieden + Kennedy (WK) responded on behalf of Pizza Hut. They explained that the Cheesy Bites pizza was topped with a garlic butter spray, which included the ingredients vegetable oil, natural garlic flavouring, natural butter flavouring and beta-carotene. They said the garlic butter mixture was delivered to the pizza using a spray mechanism to aid speed of serving in a restaurant environment. They added that, because the spray contained both naturally sourced garlic and butter flavouring, the term "garlic butter" was a fair and reflective description of the topping.

The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) said, prior to the ad's appearance, they had received confirmation from WK that garlic butter was used on the Cheesy Bites pizza. They believed the product detail supplied by the agency confirmed that the term "garlic butter" was acceptable.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the contents of the topping applied to the Cheesy Bites pizza included natural garlic and natural butter flavouring. While we appreciated that the complainant had been surprised to see his pizza being sprayed with a flavouring, we nevertheless considered that consumers would expect from the ad that the pizza had a topping that tasted of garlic butter, which we understood was the case. We concluded, therefore, that the ad did not misrepresent the product and was unlikely to mislead.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence) and 5.2.2 (Implications) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No action required.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)