The coffee pods were described as “fertilized environmental capsules” misleading because they could not be fertilized at home, propaganda The authority of the standards has ruled.
Asa has banned ads from Lavazza UK and Dualit, which both offered claims about ECO credentials for their coffee products.
Lavaza described coffee pods as “fertilizer” and “environmental covers”, but can only be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way during an industrial process. The company, which is defending its announcement, said that “the capable fertilizer fertilizer” will be understood that it means that the product is made of fertilizer materials, and it is not necessarily that it was fertilizer in the local compost.
However, ASA ruled, “consumers gave a misleading impression that their coffee pods can be fertilized at home, while in reality they can only be fertilized in an industrial environment.”
Home fertilizer and industrial process are very different. At home, the compost box is used in the garden, and the process is somewhat slow, with the inability of each element to effectively decompose. Industrial processes use specialized equipment and specific levels of temperature and humidity, which broke waste more quickly, which means that a wide range of elements can be eliminated.
Likewise, a paid search advertisement against Dualit claimed that coffee bags “fertilizer”, which ASA implicitly said could be local when it was not.
The company said that its coffee bags have been adopted as artificial fertilizer and made of polylactic acid, which is a substance derived from sugars extracted from plants and ground coffee. They have argued that consumers will explain “compassive coffee bags” as they mean that bags are made of fertilized material, and they will not assume that they are fertilized at home.
ASA rejected this, the ruling, which consumers believe that the products described as “fertilizer” are fertilized at home.
ASA said: “We thought people would understand from the” capable claim “, in the context of the consumer product for use at home, that these products can be fertilized at home. Since this was not, we found that the ads were misleading and so we banned them.
“We know that when it comes to making purchase decisions, the public is keen to make options with the environment in mind. It is important that the brands are clear about how easy to get rid of products in an environmentally friendly, so people are not misleading.”
Lavazza and Dualit have been contacted to comment.
