Lipton gets warning after ‘misleading’ posts suggest end of Peach Ice Tea
A string of social media posts from Lipton Ice Tea joking that the brand’s signature drink had been discontinued have been ruled misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
In March, the drinks brand claimed that their peach flavour would no longer be available to customers, posting an image of a Lipton can with white wings attached and text that stated, “Rest in Peach.”
“Our iconic Peach Lipton Ice Tea flavour is getting discontinued. We know – it hurts (sorry if we’ve ruined your go-to afternoon chill bev),” the statement read.
PepsiCo International, which jointly owns Lipton with Unilever, maintains that the ad campaign – posted two weeks ahead of April Fools’ Day – was intended as a prank.
But after receiving several customer complaints, the ASA has ruled that the brand’s light-hearted intention was not clear and may have prompted shoppers to unnecessarily stock up on the peach flavoured product.
Ice tea fans took to social media to express their dismay at the thought of their favourite product being banished from shelves. “Not sure why you’d ruin my life like this to be honest, bit rude,” one wrote.
“Please rethink this decision I’m going to throw up,” another said.
Lipton had initially planned to reveal the prank on April 1, but it published a follow-up post the next day to confirm it was a stunt in response to confusion and negative comments from customers.
The posts have now been removed from the brand’s social media accounts.
A spokesperson for Lipton said: “Our campaign was intended as a playful early April Fools’ joke that was not meant to mislead anyone.”
“As soon as we saw it had caused some confusion, we quickly explained our beloved Peach flavour wouldn’t be discontinued.”
The ASA has warned Lipton Tea that future advertising must not misleadingly give the impression that their products were being discontinued.
The post came only a month after Duo, the Duolingo owl, ‘died’ in a social media stunt. A video of the language learning service’s mascot being hit by a cybertruck generated tens of millions of views across social media platforms.
Reporting by Zainab Haji