Nestlé gets away with reference to calcium in cheesecake
cheesecake without it being considered a health claim, writes
Dominique Patton.
The company used a cartoon of a women to advertise its Little Notions Cheesecake, superimposing on her hair the following text: "Lemon Cheesecake's made with cheese. Cheese is full of calcium. Calcium makes bones strong. If I don't eat cheesecake I'll fall over."
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint about the ad that said it was misleading because it implied the product contained a lot of calcium and was good for consumers' health.
However the ASA accepted Nestle's argument that it had not intended to make a health claim for the product.
Nestle said the claims "lemon cheesecake's made with cheese", "cheese is full of calcium" and "calcium makes bones strong" were reasonable assumptions but most people would not take them to be serious health claims for the confectionery product.
The firm pointed out that the advertisement stated that "cheese" was full of calcium, not the product.
And the girl's thought process simply reflected the flawed and ridiculous logic people used to justify eating delicious things, revealed in their consumer research.
