ASA Adjudication on Cereal Partners UK

Ad

A TV ad and an Internet ad for Nestle cereals:

a. In the TV ad, a voice-over stated "Hey, did you know? Not all cereals have whole grain. But all Nestle cereals do. See the green banner? That's your whole grain guarantee. If it's got the banner, it's got whole grain. So go on, look for the green banner. And get whole grain. With Nestle cereals. It's a doddle". Some of the words in the voice-over appeared simultaneously in on-screen text. The ad showed six boxes of different brands of Nestle cereal - Cheerios, Bitesize Shredded Wheat, Shreddies, Shredded Wheat, Oats & More and Nesquik - each of which had a green banner on the packet that stated "WHOLE GRAIN".

b. The Internet ad stated "LOOK FOR THE GREEN BANNER AND GET WHOLE GRAIN GUARANTEED ROLL OVER SEE THE RANGE CLICK TO FIND OUT MORE". The ad showed the same six boxes of different brands of Nestle cereal, each of which had a green banner on the packet that stated "WHOLE GRAIN".

Issue

One viewer challenged whether the ads misleadingly implied all the cereal grains in all the Nestle cereals shown were 100% whole grain, whereas she understood from the Nestle website that that was not the case.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

BCAP TV Code

Response

Cereal Partners said the ads' use of the word "guaranteed" referred to the inclusion of whole grain in all Nestle breakfast cereals.  They believed consumers would understand that, like most food products, Nestle cereals were a compound of ingredients, and the ads' message was simply that all Nestle cereals contained whole grain.  They pointed out that the ad stated that Nestle cereals "have" whole grain and that the cereals had "got" whole grain which, they believed, suggested neither that the products contained nothing but whole grain, nor that all the cereal grains in the product were whole grain.  They said Shredded Wheat was the only Nestle cereal that was 100% whole grain, but all Nestle cereals did contain whole grains.  They submitted confidential information, relating to each brand in the Nestle cereal range, on the percentage of each product as a whole that was whole grain, and the percentage of the cereal grains in each product that were whole grain.

Cereal Partners added that the ads were subjected to consumer research before they were aired. No consumer had inferred from them that all the cereal grains were 100% whole grain.  They had been using the phrase "Whole grain guaranteed" in their advertising since 2005, and had received no complaints that the ads misleadingly implied all the cereal grains in Nestle cereals were 100% whole grain.  

Clearcast disagreed with the viewer's interpretation that all the cereal grains in all the cereals shown were 100% whole grain.  They felt the TV ad implied neither that whole grains were the only grains present, nor that they were 100% whole grain.  They said they were careful to ensure the ad mentioned only the inclusion of whole grain without stating that that was the sole type of grain present.  They argued that the ad did not suggest that the cereals included a specific amount of whole grain and did not state that they were whole grain products. It merely referred to the presence of whole grain, but an unidentifiable amount.  Before clearing the ad for broadcast, they received a nutritional table which demonstrated that all Nestle cereals included whole grain, and an assurance that each portion of cereal contained whole grain. They considered that was sufficient evidence for the ad's claims.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted from the evidence Cereal Partners had submitted that not all the cereal grains in all the Nestle cereals shown in the ads were 100% whole grain.  However, we considered that the ads did not go so far as to suggest that they were.  We were of the view that the ads did not make any implied claims about the proportion of whole grain in Nestle cereals as a whole, or the proportion of whole grain in the cereal grains, and merely carried the message that (an unspecified amount of) whole grain was present in all Nestle cereals.  Because all Nestle cereals did contain a proportion of whole grain, we concluded that the ads were unlikely to mislead.

We investigated ad (a) under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence), 5.2.2 (Implications) and 8.3.1a (Accuracy in food advertising), and ad (b) under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness), but did not find them in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)