ASA Adjudication on POM Wonderful LLC

Ad

A poster for POM Wonderful showed a bottle of the product with a severed noose around its neck. Text stated “Cheat death. The antioxidant power of pomegranate juice”.

Issue

23 complainants challenged whether the ad, and particularly the claim "Cheat death", misleadingly exaggerated the health benefits likely to be achieved by drinking the product.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

POM Wonderful said it was a well-known technique to make an advertising claim that was so exaggerated it could not possibly be taken seriously by consumers.  They said that technique was accepted under UK legislation and the CAP Code, which stated that obvious untruths or exaggerations that were unlikely to mislead were allowed.

They pointed out that the ad was a poster, which would be seen by consumers only fleetingly and, therefore, must contain messages that were short and literal: posters did not lend themselves to sophisticated claims or carefully crafted nuances.  They believed, if taken literally, the statement "Cheat death", together with the image of a severed noose, informed consumers that the consumption of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice would bestow immortality, which was an obvious untruth and exaggeration that was never meant to be taken seriously.  The phrase and image were used simply to draw the attention of those passing to the crux of the ad, which was the fact that POM Wonderful contained antioxidants.  They explained that the CAP Code demanded substantiation only of objective claims; "Cheat death" would not be interpreted by consumers as a realistic claim and, therefore, substantiation was not required.  In their view, consumers would not infer from the claim that they could become immortal by drinking the product.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted POM Wonderful's argument that the claim "Cheat death" was an impossible exaggeration and an obvious untruth about the results consumers were likely to achieve from drinking POM Wonderful pomegranate juice.

Although we noted immortality was one interpretation of the claim "Cheat death" we were concerned that it could also be interpreted, especially when read in conjunction with the claim "The antioxidant power of pomegranate juice", as meaning that pomegranate juice contributed in some way to a longer life.  We noted complainants had stated both interpretations.

We concluded that the claim was ambiguous and if read as a health claim, rather than an obvious untruth, it was capable of objective substantiation.  We considered the evidence submitted by POM Wonderful to support the antioxidant benefits of pomegranate juice but concluded that it fell short of showing any direct relation between consuming the product and a longer life.  Although, we noted there was no intention to mislead or to make an objective claim about longer life we concluded that the claim "Cheat death" was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)