PG Tips win teabag battle with Tetley over pyramid infusion claim
A PG Tips advert claiming that its pyramid teabags are better for infusing tea than the round variety favoured by rival Tetley has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The body found in favour of the PG Tips for making the better brew as a result of greater efficiencies in distributing flavour courtesy of the added dimension of travel.
This came after Tetley owner Tata Global beverages, complained that a commercial starring Johnny Vegas and a sock puppet called Monkey exaggerated and misled viewers by over stating the ‘brewing power’ of its teabags.
The ASA dismissed this however, stating that the pyramid bags had ‘more room to move’ and thus a ‘greater brewing efficiency than the round teabag’: "Unilever provided test results which showed that the infusion of tea, at 40 seconds and two minutes into brewing, was greater when using a pyramid tea bag than when using a round tea bag.
"We therefore concluded that the ad did not exaggerate the capability and performance of the advertised product and was not misleading.
The ASA added: “While a large portion of round tea bags were owned by Tetley, we considered that consumers would not immediately identify a round tea bag as being a Tetley tea bag. Because we considered that the comparison was not made with an identifiable competitor, we concluded that the ad did not denigrate Tetley."