Maltesers calorie claim 'misled'

[paulham]

A Maltesers advert misled consumers when it implied the sweets were a low-calorie snack, a watchdog has ruled.

The Advertising Standards Authority said the advert, which claimed each sweet was "less than 11 calories each", suggested they were a low-energy food.

This can only be used to describe products with 40 calories per 100g or less. Maltesers contain 505 per 100g.

Manufacturers Mars said the claim was a factual reference to calories and did not suggest the sweets were low energy.

The ASA also criticised a nutritional claim made for Jaffa Cakes, saying they did not qualify legally as a low-fat product.

The Maltesers advert showed a woman offering the chocolate-covered honeycomb balls to a friend, saying: "Less than 11 calories each."

   
We concluded that the words 'less than' gave the misleading impression that a Malteser was low in energy
Advertising Standards Authority

The other woman replied: "Yeah? That's not very naughty."

But the ASA has now ruled the claim "less than 11 calories each" should not have been made about Maltesers, especially when the same advert also told viewers they were not being so "naughty".

An ASA spokesman said: "We concluded that the words 'less than' gave the misleading impression that a Malteser was low in energy."


Jaffa Cakes and This Water drinks also came in for criticism from the ASA.

Their adverts broke regulations, the watchdog ruled, when they wrongly suggested the cakes were low fat, and that the drinks only contained fruit and water, even though they had added sugar.

The McVitie's Jaffa Cakes TV advert showed two women talking about how they believed their friend was lying when she said she had fallen down a well.

One told the other: "Don't worry, she's always lying...Last week she said there was only one gram of fat in a McVitie's Jaffa Cake."

A voice-over later stated: "Michelle isn't lying. Each delicious McVitie's Jaffa Cake really does have only one gram of fat."

The ASA ruled the advert's message was that the amount of fat in a Jaffa Cake was much less than expected and therefore constituted a "low-fat" claim.


Such claims cannot be made for solid foods with more than 3g of fat per 100g. Jaffa Cakes have 8g per 100g.

"We concluded that the claim 'only one gram of fat' misleadingly suggested that Jaffa Cakes were low in fat," an ASA spokesman said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7670214.stm

Are they implying that we are all that stupid that we cannot work these facts out for ourselves?

I really do not see that much wrong with the adverts.
Anyone disagree?

[chocadmin]

I thought advertising was supposed to be a 'licence to lie' where's the fun if the ASA even picks up on implied lies whether intentional or not.

[bounty hunter]

Many people will be fooled by this.  Although many people, maybe half the population don't give two hoots what they eat anyway, so what does it matter?

[smurfboy]

As long as something's not an outright lie (i.e. if there's actually 2g of fat per Jaffa Cake) I don't see the problem. Neither ad uses the terms 'low energy' or 'low fat'. I do think that Jaffa Cake ad should be banned though. On the grounds that it's crap.

[bounty hunter]

I certainly wouldn't use them before or after running.

[loulou]

How about before a bath?

[bounty hunter]

Hmmm... maybe, just having some now with my coffee