An ad by Hi Spirits has been cleared by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) of being misleading.
The company placed two adverts in trade magazines claiming in one its Antica Sambuca was "UK's No.1 selling on-trade Sambuca" and in the other that it was "the best selling on-trade Sambuca by far".
Rival company Cellar Trends complained that the ads were misleading as its research suggested its own Luxardo brand was the best selling on-trade sambuca and called for Hi Spirits' claims to be substantiated.
After examining independent market research, the ASA concluded that the ad was "unlikely to mislead" as although Luxardo had the higher market share, the volume sales of Antica were 0.2% higher. The difference was due to the higher unit price of Luxardo.