Aldi's 'cheapest Christmas dinner claim' was misleading, says advertising watchdog

Aldi's claim it had "Britain's cheapest Christmas dinner" was found to be misleading after Sainsbury's reported it to the advertising watchdog.

An advert stated that consumer group Which? had found Aldi's festive meal was 20% cheaper than Sainsbury's.

But the rival supermarket argued the claims were misleading and could not be verified. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld the complaint.

Aldi said the ruling was based on "an advertising technicality".

In early December, Aldi ran a four-page wraparound newspaper ad with the strapline: "The home of Britain's cheapest Christmas dinner. Why go anywhere else?"

It also stated: "Sainsbury's £44.81", "Aldi £33.80" and "Swap & Save over 20% on your Christmas dinner". Sainsbury's questioned whether those claims could be verified.

Aldi said they were made based on an independent third-party comparison on the Which? website titled "Which is the cheapest supermarket for Christmas dinner ingredients?"

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But the ASA said the advert would lead shoppers to believe that the total cost of buying ingredients for a typical Christmas dinner would be cheaper at Aldi than in any other supermarket, "so there would be no reason to shop around".

It also said people would think Which? had given Aldi a "cheapest Christmas dinner" award. In fact, Which? had found that a Christmas meal was only 4p cheaper at Aldi than at Lidl, and had given each of the discounters "budget-friendly Christmas dinner" crowns.

Sainsbury's also pointed out that the price comparison was made at the end of November. It said this was not representative of prices when shoppers would be buying fresh ingredients for their Christmas dinner, and the ASA agreed the advert was misleading in this regard.

Retail analyst Natalie Berg said supermarket price wars had intensified in recent months "so this would have been the last thing Sainsbury's needed", especially during the crucial run-up to Christmas.

"The supermarkets are fighting tooth and nail to prevent customers from switching to the discounters."

This is the latest in a long line of supermarket rows with caterpillar cakes at the centre of a previous saga

This latest supermarket row comes after Tesco was told to stop using its Clubcard Prices logo after losing a long legal battle with rival Lidl, who successfully argued that Tesco's use of a yellow circle on a blue square infringed its copyright,

In 2022, a "confidential settlement" was reached after Marks & Spencer accused Aldi of copying its Colin the Caterpillar cake.

In response to Tuesday's ASA ruling, Aldi said: "We are disappointed that the ASA has upheld this complaint based on an advertising technicality, but we remain confident that customers will make significant savings every time they shop with Aldi."

A Which? spokesperson said: "We are disappointed that a Which? endorsement logo and our research was used in an advert that has broken the regulator's rules on marketing and we have sought assurances from Aldi that it will not happen again."

Sainsbury's said: "It's really important to us that customers are able to make fairly informed decisions about where they choose to shop and we are glad the ASA has recognised the misleading nature of this ad."