Lipton Ice Tea rapped for misleading recycling claim

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against Lipton Ice Tea, accusing the brand of a misleading claim on plastic recycling.

The complaint referred to a poster for Lipton Ice Tea seen on a bus shelter on 13 August 2021, featuring headline text which stated “DELICIOUSLY REFRESHING, 100% RECYCLED*”. The ad also included pack shots of two Lipton Ice Tea bottles, with a recycling logo and the text “I’M 100% RECYCLED PLASTIC” visible.

The asterisk linked to small text at the bottom of the poster stated “Bottle made from recycled plastic, excludes cap and label”. But the complaint challenged whether the claim misleadingly implied that all of the Lipton bottle was made from 100% recycled plastic.

In its response to the ASA, Pepsi Lipton International said the headline claim had a clear asterisk that indicated to consumers there was a qualification that should be read in conjunction with it.

The firm accepted that the size of the text in the qualification was small and could have been overlooked, but they said the wording of the qualification was sufficient to clarify that the claim related to the bottle only and excluded the cap and label.

The ASA, however, considered that consumers would understand the claim “100% RECYCLED*” alongside images of the bottle with the label and cap to mean that all components of the Lipton Ice Tea bottle (i.e. the bottle, cap and label) were made entirely from recycled materials.

The agency added that the qualification was insufficient to counter the overall impression created by the ad, that is, all parts of the bottle were made entirely from recycled materials.

“Because the overall impression of the ad was that all components of the bottle were made entirely from recycled materials when that was not the case, we concluded that the claim “100% RECYCLED*” was misleading,” the regulator said.

Ruling that the ad must not appear again in the form complained about, the ASA asked Pepsi Lipton International to ensure their advertising did not state or imply that their product packaging was made from 100% recycled material where it contained components that did not meet the criteria.