London - The makers of Tetley teabags are probably wishing they’d kept their mouths shut.
They have just pitted their round teabags against the pyramid bags of rivals PG Tips – and lost.
Executives at Tetley complained to the Advertising Standards Authority in January after their competitors appeared to trash their round bags in a television commercial.
The advert featured comedian Johnny Vegas and a puppet monkey demonstrating that pyramid bags are better at releasing flavour than round ones – a claim Tetley said was unfair and untrue.
However in a ruling published this week, the ASA has sided with Unilever-owned PG Tips and decided that their pyramids really do make for a better brew.
It said: “Unilever provided relevant modelling and measurements to demonstrate that the tea in the pyramid teabag would have more room to move... and that the pyramid teabag had a greater brewing efficiency than the round teabag.”
In the commercial – which aired in December – Vegas is shown saying: “Monkey, you know how you always say, ‘there’s no other tea to beat PG’ … What if you’re lying?”
The monkey then goes to prove his point by making two cups of tea, one with a pyramid bag and one with a round bag, stating: “PG Tips uses pyramid bags, so if we test one against a regular tea bag... you’ll see the tea has got more room to move, freeing the great fresh taste for a perfect cuppa.”
Tetley is owned by the Indian company Tata Global Beverages, which complained the images exaggerated the performance of the pyramids. It challenged the claim the tea has more room to move so “freeing the great fresh taste”.
It also argued that the comparison with a round bag “denigrated” the Tetley brand – even though it was not named in the commercial – and portrayed it in a negative light.
PG Tips countered by offering evidence of tests comparing the performance of different bags in hot water after 40 seconds and two minutes. Both showed the pyramids were more effective in terms of colour and strength.
Separate research by the company also showed the leaves in a pyramid bag had 77 percent more room to move than in a round one.
PG Tips also insisted the commercial was not meant to be seen as a direct comparison to Tetley because round teabags are also offered by other companies as well as supermarket own brands.
Backing PG Tips, the ASA said: “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 teabag than when using a round teabag.
“We therefore concluded that the advert did not exaggerate the capability and performance of the advertised product and was not misleading.”
The watchdog added: “While a large portion of round teabags were owned by Tetley, we considered that consumers would not immediately identify a round teabag as being a Tetley teabag.
“Because we considered that the comparison was not made with an identifiable competitor, we concluded that the ad did not denigrate Tetley.”
A PG Tips spokesman said: “We’re thrilled that the ASA have agreed with what PG Tips fans have known for years: pyramid bags really do make the best cup of tea.”
Tetley had no one available to comment on the ruling. - Daily Mail