Spanish fresh produce association Ava Asaja has demanded that US soft drinks group Coca Cola withdraw a new publicity campaign in the country that claims its Minute Maid product “contains the nutritional equivalent of eating an orange”.
The Valencia-based organisation has questioned the legality of Minute Maid’s marketing campaign for its new product ‘Todo Naranja’ (‘All Orange”), which is being featured prominently on bus stops, publicity hoardings and in consumer magazines.
In the adverting, the US company claimed that drinking 200ml of Minute Maid Todo Naranja was equivalent to eating 100g of the consumable part of an orange, an assertion strongly disputed by the fresh produce association.
Ava Asaja claimed in a statement that the publicity amounted to “false advertising” and for this reason said it was preparing to submit a complaint about the campaign to official Spanish arbitration body Autocontrol.
The organisation has also asked for an explanation from the Spanish Agency for Food Security and Nutrition (AESAN) over the legality of the publicity campaign.
In the statement, Ava Asaja president Cristóbal Aguado described the advertising as “unethical” and claimed it was a “new example of the appropriation of the natural goodness of citrus”.
