A social media stunt in which Lipton Ice Tea pretended to discontinue its core Peach variant has landed the soft drinks brand in hot water with the Advertising Standards Authority.
Lipton Ice Tea posted a graphic of its Peach can adorned with angel wings to its Instagram and TikTok accounts on 18 March, featuring the caption: ‘Rest in Peach’.
“You may have heard that our iconic Peach Lipton Ice Tea flavour is getting discontinued,” the posts read. “We know – it hurts (sorry if we’ve ruined your go-to afternoon chill bev). But don’t worry, the rest of your faves are still here to keep you refreshed. And who knows? Maybe one day, Peach will make a legendary comeback.”
It had initially planned to reveal the posts were an April Fools’ joke on 1 April but – following negative comments from consumers – published a follow-up post the next day, 19 March 2025, to confirm the posts were a prank.
However, after investigating the adverts following complaints, the ASA has ruled they were likely to mislead consumers.
“Consumers would likely understand that, because it was being discontinued, there would be a limited amount of time to purchase a peach flavour tea product before stocks ran out, and if they wanted to purchase the product, there would be a time pressure to do so,” it noted.
“While some of the comments in the posts indicated that some people believed it was a joke that the product was being discontinued, the comments came from consumers, not Lipton Ice Tea, and were not part of the ads,” the watchdog added.
“Given the timing of the ads and the lack of clear context to explain or suggest that the ads were a joke, the posts were misleading and gave the impression Peach Lipton Ice Tea was being discontinued,” it concluded.
Lipton Ice Tea owner PepsiCo said the campaign was “intended as a playful early April Fools’ joke that was not meant to mislead anyone”.
“As soon as we saw it had caused some confusion, we quickly explained our beloved Peach flavour wouldn’t be discontinued,” it said.
It told the ASA it would ensure future campaigns of a similar nature were more clearly signposted and more carefully timed to avoid misinterpretation.
Read more: ‘April Fool’ fails: the fake death marketing stunt must die
Lipton Ice Tea is not the only brand to ‘prank’ consumers by pretending to retire its products in recent times. Also in March, personal care brand Lynx unveiled a major revamp for Lynx Africa, days after feigning that it was axing the sub-brand.
Last September, Old Jamaica said it was retiring its ginger beer “in a blaze of glory”, only to later announce a rebrand.
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