Ad description
Two posts on Instagram and TikTok by Lipton Ice Tea, seen on 18 March 2025.
a. The Instagram post contained an image of a can of Peach Lipton Ice Tea with white wings attached, and text that stated, “REST IN PEACH You may have heard that our iconic Peach Lipton Ice Tea flavour is getting discontinued. We know – it hurts (sorry if we’ve ruined your go-to afternoon chill bev). But don’t worry, the rest of your faves are still here to keep you refreshed. And who knows? Maybe one day, Peach will make a legendary comeback. We appreciate your understanding during this period of adjustment and apologize for any inconvenience caused. #RIPeach”. A caption in the post stated. “who’s joining my peach support group? #RIPeach #liptonicetea”.
b. The TikTok post contained the same image and text as ad (a).
Issue
The complainants, who had believed the peach flavour was being discontinued only to find out the following day that it was an April Fool’s joke and the flavour was not being discontinued, challenged whether the ads were misleading.
Response
PepsiCo International Ltd t/a Lipton Tea said the ad campaign was intended as a light-hearted April Fools’ joke, and that the suggestion that the product would be discontinued was not meant to be taken seriously. They believed the ad would be understood as a joke, that the peach flavour was one of their best-selling products and it was not their intention to mislead consumers.They believed the tone of the ad was playful, and said the content, such as the title “Rest in Peach” was designed to convey humour. They also said the text “maybe one day peach will make a legendary comeback” hinted towards the post being a joke.
They said the ads were limited to organic posts on their social media channels, and that many of their followers understood the ad as a joke, as displayed by comments on the posts, including the top comment, which had 60.3 thousand likes, which said, “THIS BETTER BE A JOKE” and other comments that referenced it was likely a marketing campaign. They highlighted that these comments would have had high visibility due to them getting a large number of likes, and would have been high up in the comments section.
They had initially planned to reveal the Joke on 1 April 2025, but in response to some negative comments received from consumers, took prompt action by publishing a follow-up post the next day on 19 March 2025, to confirm it was a prank. They believed those actions helped mitigate any misunderstanding and demonstrated their responsiveness to reassure consumers. They said the post was made prior to 1 April to avoid getting lost amongst other brands’ April Fools’ ads, and not to mislead consumers.
They said they would learn from these ads and ensure their future campaigns of a similar nature would be more clearly signposted and more carefully timed to avoid misinterpretation.
Assessment
Upheld
The ads featured statements such as “our iconic Peach Lipton Ice Tea flavour is getting discontinued” and “We […] apologize [sic] for any inconvenience caused”, which the ASA considered were likely to be understood by consumers to mean the tea was being discontinued. We considered that consumers would likely understand that, because it was being discontinued, there would be a limited amount of time to purchase a peach flavour tea product before stocks ran out, and if they wanted to purchase the product, there would be a time pressure to do so.
We understood, however, that the product was not being discontinued. We acknowledged that the advertiser had intended the campaign to be a light-hearted April Fools’ joke, though the ads were posted two weeks prior to April Fools’ Day rather than on the day itself when consumers might typically expect to see April Fools’ jokes. While some of the comments in the posts indicated that some people believed it was a joke that the product was being discontinued, the comments came from consumers, not Lipton Ice Tea, and were not part of the ads. We also noted that the comment section featured comments which suggested consumers were unclear on whether or not the ad was a joke, or serious. We recognised that the ads featured some elements of humour, such as the image of the can with wings, the “REST IN PEACH” headline and “RIPeach” text, but considered those elements were not sufficient to make it clear that the statements about discontinuation were a joke.
Therefore, given the timing of the ads and the lack of clear context to explain or suggest that the ads were a joke, we considered they gave the overall impression that the product was being discontinued, when that was not the case, which was likely to affect consumers’ decisions in relation to whether, and in what quantities, to purchase the product.
For those reasons, we concluded that the ads were misleading.
We welcomed Lipton Tea’s comments that they would ensure future campaigns of a similar nature were clearly signposted as being a joke.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Lipton Tea to ensure their future advertising did not misleadingly give the impression that their products were being discontinued, if that was not the case.
