The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has deemed a series of social media posts by Lipton Ice Tea, which humorously claimed the brand's signature drink was being discontinued, as misleading.
In March, the beverage company sparked concern among consumers by announcing that their peach flavour would be taken off the market, sharing an image of a Lipton can with angelic white wings and the caption "Rest in Peach," as reported by .
"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 post declared.
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PepsiCo International, co-owner of Lipton alongside Unilever, insisted that the advertising campaign, launched two weeks before April Fools' Day, was meant to be a humorous hoax.
However, following several complaints from the public, the ASA has determined that the playful nature of the campaign was not sufficiently obvious, potentially leading customers to buy up the peach flavoured tea unnecessarily.
Devotees of the ice tea expressed their upset on social media at the prospect of losing their preferred refreshment. One individual lamented, "Not sure why you'd ruin my life like this to be honest, bit rude."
"Please rethink this decision I'm going to throw up," pleaded another consumer.
Although Lipton had intended to disclose the jest on April 1, the company opted to post a clarification the following day due to the confusion and adverse reactions from their clientele.
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The posts have now been taken down from the brand's social media accounts.
A representative for Lipton stated: "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 cautioned 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.
Reported by Zainab Haji