Skip to page content Skip to main menu

ASA Adjudication on Coca-Cola Great Britain

Ad

Two posters and a leaflet for the Vitaminwater range of soft drinks.

a. One poster was headlined "more muscles than brussels". A pack shot of the 'power-c' drink was shown. Text on its label stated "popeye had it easy. a can of spinach and he bulked up ... the nutrients in this bottle won't enable you to walk on mud, or become a strapping sailor man, but they will help you beat your granny in an arm wrestle."

b. Another poster was headlined "keep perky when you're feeling murky". A pack shot of the 'defence' drink was shown. Text on its label stated "if you've had to use sick days because you've actually been sick, then you're seriously missing out my friend. the trick is to stay perky and use sick days to just, erm, not go in."

c. The leaflet included pack shots of each of the six drinks in the range and text about the benefits of each: "… vitamins b + zinc are great for giving you superhero-like powers …"; "… with vitamin c and zinc to help you spend less time reading old magazines in the doctor's waiting room …"; "... to help you 'feel slightly more normal'…".

Issue

1. Two complainants challenged whether ad (a) misleadingly implied that the vitamins in the range of drinks conferred health benefits that made them equivalent, or preferable to vegetables.

2. One complainant challenged whether ads (a), (b) and (c) implied that the vitamins in the range of drinks could confer health benefits such as raised energy levels and resistance to illness.

3. Two complainants challenged whether ads (a) and (b) misleadingly implied that the range of drinks were healthy, because they believed they contained high levels of sugar.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Coca-Cola Great Britain ("Coca-Cola") said the Vitaminwater brand had adopted a humorous and irreverent tone for its advertising.  All advertising and packaging reflected this style and the fictional stories were linked to the different ingredients in the drinks.

1.  Coca-Cola said the phrase "more muscles than brussels" was not a reference to brussels sprout but rather to the actor Jean Claude Van Damme who was commonly labelled "the Muscles from Brussels".  The products label said that Vitaminwater would not enable you to "become a strapping sailor man" and they did not think readers were likely to infer that the product was preferable to, or equivalent to vegetables.  They argued that this was consistent with the brands humour and explained that the word "brussels" was not capitalised in accordance with their brand style.  

2.  Coca-Cola said that the claim "keep perky when youre feeling murky" in ad (b) related to mood rather than resistance to illness.  Although they considered that zinc and vitamin C did play a role in immune function, they believed the ad made no functional claims.  They said the reference to the "doctors waiting room" in ad (c) similarly related to the benefits vitamin C and zinc could have, but  thought that the ad did not imply that it could prevent illness.

Coca-Cola argued that consumers would not think that the claim "beating your granny in an arm wrestle" in ad (a) meant they would require higher energy levels.  They also believed that the claim "great for giving you superhero-like powers" was so far removed from reality that consumers were unlikely to think it was true.

3. Coca-Cola said the products were clearly labelled and detailed the sugar content of the drinks.  They also supplied a breakdown of the products ingredients.  They did not believe the products could be described as "high sugar" because a 500 ml serving contained less than 7.5 g sugar per 100 ml.  Furthermore, they said that the product was defined as "Low calorie" in accordance with the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation 1924/2006/EC.

Assessment

1.  Upheld

The ASA noted Coca-Cola's argument that the claim "more muscles than brussels" was intended to be a humorous reference to the actor Jean Claude Van Damme who was known as "the Muscles from Brussels".  We also noted that the word "brussels" was not capitalised and considered it was not clear from the ad, or its context, that the claim intended to refer to a well known actor.  We considered that the claim was therefore ambiguous and likely to be interpreted by consumers, in conjunction with claims such as "popeye had it easy" and "sometimes we all need an injection of strength", as a comparison between the nutritional benefit of the 'power-c' drink and the vegetable brussels sprout.  Because we had not seen any evidence to show that 'power-c' was nutritionally equivalent or preferable to vegetables, we concluded the claim in ad (a) was likely to mislead.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

2. Upheld

We considered that a number of claims in ads (a), (b) and (c) were likely to be understood as claims about the nutritional benefit of the vitamins.  

We noted that in ad (b) the name "defence" was used in conjunction with the claim "keep perky when you're feeling murky" which we considered was likely to be interpreted as claiming that the drink could increase resistance to illness.  Furthermore, ad (c) claimed that the product would enable one to "pull a sickie" without actually being ill which posited a direct relationship between the vitamins contained in the drink and the implied health or nutritional benefits.  Whilst we understood that the ads were intended to be comical and irreverent, we concluded that claims such as "keep perky", "more muscles" and "help you spend less time in the doctor's waiting room" were likely to be understood as claiming that the products could increase resistance to illness, strength, or boost mood.  Because we had seen no evidence to support the claims that the vitamins mentioned could confer the implied health benefits, we concluded the claims were likely to mislead.  

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code Clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 50.1 (Health and beauty products).

3.  Upheld

We noted Coca-Cola's assertion that the product could be defined as "low calorie"; however, we also noted from the ingredient breakdown supplied that the products contained 4.6 g sugar per 100 ml or 23 g per 500 ml serving which constituted 26% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) based on 2000 calories per day.  We considered that the appearance of the product, its colour, and the fact that it was fortified with vitamins made it clear to consumers that they were not "pure" water without calories or sugar.  However, because we considered the ads made claims that were likely to be understood as referring to the nutritional and health benefits of the drinks, it was likely that, in conjunction with these claims, readers would infer that the range of drinks were "healthy". Because the drinks contained a significant proportion of a consumers RDA for sugar we concluded the ads were likely to mislead.

On this point the ad breached CAP Code Clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ads must not appear again in their current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)