ASA Adjudication on Patria Trading Ltd
Patria Trading Ltd t/a
Herrljunga Cider
The Granary
Well Bank
Bedale
North Yorkshire
DL8 2QF
Date:
8 August 2007
Media:
Press general
Sector:
Alcohol
Number of complaints:
1
Agency:
Realia
Complaint Ref:
28845
Ad
An ad in a trade journal, for Herrljunga Cider, stated " ... HERRLJUNGA IS THE ‘CHAMPAGNE’ OF ALL CIDERS. SINCE 1911 THE HERRLJUNGA BREWERY AB HAS REPRESENTED QUALITY, WHICH IS PART OF THE REASON WHY IT IS THE NUMBER ONE SELLING CIDER BRAND IN SWEDEN WITH ANNUAL SALES OF OVER 5 MILLION LITRES ...". The text was accompanied by a photograph of two bottles of Herrljunga Cider; the label on one of the bottles stated “ … 4.5% ABV …” and the label on the other stated “ … Alc. vol. 4.5% …”.
Issue
Cider of Sweden Ltd said the ad was misleading, because it impliedfive million litres of Herrljunga alcoholic cider was sold per year and was the best selling alcoholic cider brand in Sweden, whereas they believed other alcoholic cider brands outsold Herrljunga in Sweden and the quoted figure included Herrljungas non-alcoholic cider.
CAP Code (Edition 11)
Response
Herrljunga Cider (Herrljunga) provided data from an independent research company that showed Herrljunga had sold over five million litres of cider between 2005 and 2006. They explained that the figure included both their 4.5% and 0.7% alcoholic cider products. Herrljunga said that, in hindsight, they should have featured both products in the ad, but nevertheless they believed the ad was not misleading.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA considered that the ad implied that Herrljunga was the number one selling cider in Sweden. We acknowledged that the five million litre sales were made up of both alcoholic and low alcoholic Herrljunga cider sales, but considered that readers of the trade journal would interpret the ad as referring to sales of the Herrljunga brand in general, not just alcoholic cider. Because we understood that Herrljunga was the best selling cider brand in Sweden overall, we concluded that the ad did not mislead.
The ad was investigated under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other comparisons), but we did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)