Overview:
General Mills challenged claims made by competitor Promotion in Motion in a fruit snack throwdown. Which fruit gets the boot?
Fruit Snack Attack
General Mills, Inc. is the producer and manufacturer of the Annie’s and Mott’s brands of fruit snacks. The Promotion in Motion Companies, Inc. (PIM) is the producer and manufacturer of Welch’s Fruit Snacks. Welch’s released a series of commercials featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who is known for his hot-tempered bravado and frank–or harsh–opinions on food. The celebrity chef was cast as the Welch’s “Chief Fruit Officer,” who tests Welch’s fruit snacks and competitors by tossing them into a lobster tank, throwing the box out a window, tasting them and spitting them out, and complaining that there is “barely any fruit in there.”
General Mills challenged claims, in the ads arguing that the ad makes an unsupported implied claim that other fruit snacks are garbage or worthless because they do not contain whole fruit. Welch countered that its snacks contained 50% fruit puree and that they were playfully highlighting the distinctions through humor. The challenge was brought to the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau. Was the joke on Welch’s?
NAD Decision
The decision, handed down through the Fast-Track SWIFT process for single-issue challenges, concluded that Welch’s took the jokes too far. In its decision, it noted that using humor to differentiate products and competitors is fair and fun in advertising, but elements in these commercials were unfairly disparaging to competitors. It used the term “ash canning,” specifically referring to Ramsay throwing out the competing brand, throwing it into a lobster tank, and spitting out the competing fruit snacks as depicting competing products as having no positive value. They therefore recommended that PIM discontinue or modify claims. PIM agreed to comply with the recommendations.
If you are in a fruit fight, or another fight in advertising claims, or you would like research to back up your advertising claims, contact MMR Strategy Group.