Tesco loses in battle about definition of 'local'

by Jennifer Whitehead, Brand Republic 13-Sep-06, 08:30

LONDON - Tesco has been rapped about an ad flagging up its wonderful local Welsh produce, which an eagle-eyed customer from Bangor said was not actually local.

The ad appeared in the regional press and read: "Water from your local springs. Wine from your local vineyards. And vegetables from your local farms".

A reader challenged the claims of the ad, because they believed that the produce shown in the ad was not local to Bangor -- the store that was being promoted in the ad.

In the end, the complaint came down to the definition of the word "local". Tesco defended the use of the term by saying it had carried out research into how consumers interpreted the word. The 10% of the people surveyed who were from Wales mainly interpreted "local" to refer to their country or region.

However, the Advertising Standards Authority sided with the Bangor resident. It said: "We considered that readers were likely to interpret 'local' to refer to their immediate surrounding region.

"Because the products referred to in the ad were not specifically local to Bangor, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead readers."

Tesco had already said it had no further plans to use the ad and the ASA said no further action was necessary.

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