What happened when Tetley challenged a PG Tips advert claim?

Tetley Tea, owned by Tata Global Beverages, recently complained when a Unilever tea brand--PG Tips--aired an advert demonstrating one of its pyramid tea bags compared with a round tea bag. The advert said the pyramid tea bag gives PG Tips tea 'more room to move, freeing the great fresh taste'.

The stakes are high because tea bags are by far the favourite way for UK consumers to make tea. The UK tea market accounts for £500m in annual revenue. As a result, even a small gain in market share represents millions of pounds of revenue.

Brands battle for consumer attention and preference not only over taste but also over convenience, ease of use and shape/size of products. They watch each other's adverts and are alert to potentially misleading message points.

Tetley complained that the PG Tips ad was misleading and denigrated its brand. The Advertising Standards Authority checked into the situation, reviewing both Tetley's tests and PG Tips' tests. Its response:

1. The pyramid tea bag demonstration would not be misinterpreted by consumers as a scientific experiment. PG Tips' tests supported the claim that infusion of tea at 40 seconds and two minutes into the brewing process was more efficient with a pyramid bag compared with a round bag.
2. The pyramid shape was, according to PG Tips tests, more efficient at brewing. The shape of the tea bag did indeed give the tea 'more room to move'.
3. Several brands market round tea bags. Therefore, the PG Tips ad wasn't specifically targeting Tetley in a negative way or denigrating the brand.

In other words, Tetley's complaints were not upheld and PG Tips was allowed to continue airing the advert.

Both are social brands: the Tetley Tea Folk have 525,000 Facebook likes, PG Tips has 437,000 likes.