The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that an advertisement for a pomegranate drink which claimed consumers could “cheat death” must be withdrawn.
The poster for the fruit juice, which read: "Cheat death - the antioxidant power of pomegranate juice", was said to be “misleading” by 23 people who complained the juice would not make them live forever.
"In their view, consumers would not infer from the claim that they could become immortal by drinking the product," a spokesman for ASA told the Telegraph.
The complaints have been upheld as the ASA believes the advert, however humorously intended, implies consumers will gain immortality.
Creators of the juice, POM Wonderful, has said the poster was so over the top that no consumer would take it seriously.
"The ASA noted POM Wonderful's argument that the claim 'cheat death' was an impossible exaggeration and an obvious untruth about the results consumers were likely to achieve from drinking POM Wonderful pomegranate juice.
"Although we noted immortality was one interpretation of the claim 'cheat death', we were concerned that it could also be interpreted, especially when read in conjunction with the claim 'The antioxidant power of pomegranate juice', as meaning that pomegranate juice contributed in some way to a longer life,” said a spokesman.
"We concluded that the claim was ambiguous and if read as a health claim, rather than an obvious untruth, it was capable of objective substantiation.
"We considered the evidence submitted by POM Wonderful to support the antioxidant benefits of pomegranate juice but concluded that it fell short of showing any direct relation between consuming the product and a longer life.
"Although we noted there was no intention to mislead or to make an objective claim about longer life, we concluded that the claim 'cheat death' was misleading.”
The advert must not appear again in its current form under the ruling.
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