ASA Adjudication on Wells & Youngs Brewing Company Ltd

Ad

A trade magazine ad for flavoured beer showed a bottle of Banana Bread Beer and a bottle of Waggle Dance (honey flavoured beer). Text above stated "No.1 & No.2 flavoured premium bottled ales*" and was linked to smaller text below which stated “*A.C. Nielsen 12 weeks to 19 Apr '08, volume & value sales in total off trade".

Issue

The complainants, brewers Hall & Woodhouse Ltd, believed that two of their own flavoured beers, Golden Glory and Golden Champion, performed better during the period specified in the ad and challenged whether the claim "No.1 & No.2 flavoured premium bottled ales" was misleading and could be substantiated.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Wells & Youngs Brewing Company Ltd (Well & Youngs) said they had no plans to repeat the ad or claim again.  They did not dispute that Hall & Woodhouse Ltd's (Hall & Woodhouse) products had sold greater quantities, but they said they had not included them in their "flavoured premium bottled ales" categorisation, because they felt they belonged to a different segmentation; golden, rather than flavoured.  They said that consumer research indicated four segments within the bottled ales category: "traditional", "light/golden", "flavoured" and "dark/strong".  They said that was generally accepted by key retailers and pointed out the ad was in a trade publication.  They referred to research by Adsearch they had commissioned, which suggested that the mass market ale consumer preferred a beer with a lighter flavour and was interested in a "golden" product, whereas beer connoisseurs might prefer flavoured ales because of their unique or interesting flavour.  They said that, although their competitors' products, Golden Glory and Golden Champion, contained flavourings, they were marketed predominantly as "golden" beers, through name and package design.  However, they felt their own products, Waggle Dance and Banana Bread Beer were flavoured beers.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that Golden Champion and Golden Glory were described as premium ales flavoured with elderflower and with peach and melon, respectively.  While we acknowledged that Wells & Youngs considered their competitor's products were marketed predominantly as "golden" beers and not flavoured beers, Wells & Youngs's website also referred to their own product, Waggle Dance, as a "golden ale with a honey aroma".  We noted the advertised claim referred to "No.1 & no.2 flavoured premium bottled ales", whereas the A.C. Nielsen data showed that Golden Champion and Golden Glory had higher volume and value sales than Waggle Dance and Banana Bread Beer.  We also noted that, while the different beers could be categorised as either golden or traditional, all four beers in question contained a flavoured element, by which they could be commonly compared.

Because we considered trade buyers and retailers would recognise that all four beers could be commonly compared as flavoured beers, and because the data did not show that the advertiser's beers, Waggle Dance and Banana Bread Beer, were number one and two flavoured premium bottled ales as claimed, we concluded the claim was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other comparisons).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)