ASA Adjudication on This Water Ltd

Ad

a. A poster for This Water lemon and lime drink featured an image of the product. Two arrows, attached to text that stated "Water from a spring" and "fruit from the trees", pointed at the product. The label on the product featured an image of a rain cloud and text that stated "this water is made from fruit and clouds. Lemons, limes & spring water". Further text underneath the image stated "simple, natural, refreshment".

b. A poster for This Water mangoes and passion fruit drink featured an image of the product with the same text attached to the two arrows pointing at the product, and the same text underneath the image, as described above. The label on the product featured an image of a rainbow and text that stated "this water is coloured by nature. Mangoes, passion fruits & spring water".

c. A poster for This Water pomegranates, lychees and blackcurrant drink featured an image of the product with the same text attached to two arrows pointing at the product, and the same text underneath the image, as described in ad (a). The label on the product featured an image of a bird and text that stated "pomegranates from the trees, this water from a spring. Pomegranates, lychees, blackcurrants & spring water".

Issue

One complainant challenged whether ads (a), (b) and (c) misleadingly implied that the products contained fruit and water only, because she believed that sugar had been added to all of the products.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

This Water Ltd (This Water) said the drinks were made of a blend of spring water, crushed fruit, pure fruit juices and sugar. They said the drinks were at least 90% spring water and pure fruit, and they submitted a breakdown of the ingredients by recipe for each drink. This Water argued that the drinks were simple because they contained only three types of ingredients, compared to other soft drinks in their category, and that the ingredients in their products were 100% natural. They submitted a document from their sugar supplier, as well as a statement explaining why they believed the sugar in their drinks could be classed as a natural ingredient.

This Water explained that the poster campaign aimed to highlight the two main ingredients in the drinks, which were fruit and water. They argued that the ads did not claim that fruit and water were the only ingredients in the product. This Water explained that, although the full list of ingredients was not included in their advertising, they were included on the products' labels and on their website. They said they believed that was in line with current conventions for food and drink advertising, where brands did not communicate the full list of ingredients, but highlighted key ingredients instead. This Water gave examples of other ads for branded food and drink products that they argued highlighted the main ingredients of the products only, or used the word 'natural'.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted This Water's argument that the ads highlighted the fact that fruit and water were the key ingredients in the drinks, not the only ingredients. We acknowledged that the full list of ingredients was available on the products' labels and on This Water's website, and we also noted the documents about sugar that they had provided. Nevertheless, we considered that the use of the term "simple", alongside the text "water from a spring" and "fruit from the trees" linked by arrows to the picture of the product, implied that the drink was simple because it contained water and fruit only.

We understood that the type of sugar that had been added to the drinks was refined, white, granulated sugar. We noted from the recipe breakdown submitted by This Water that added sugar constituted 8% of the Lemons and Limes drink and 10% of the Mangoes and Passion Fruit drink and Pomegranates, Lychees and Blackcurrants drink. We understood therefore that the standard 420 ml bottle of the product contained between 33.6 g and 42 g of added sugar, depending on the flavour of the drink. We considered that most consumers would not expect such a product, when described as "simple, natural", to contain added refined sugars. Because of that, and because we considered that the ads implied that the drinks contained fruit and water only, we concluded that the ads were misleading.

The ads breached CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ads must not appear again in their current form. We advised This Water to contact the CAP Copy Advice team for guidance when preparing future similar ads.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)