In posts now found to be “misleading”, Lipton Ice Tea told consumers it was discontinuing its peach flavour as an early April Fools’ Day joke.
An April Fools’ Day prank carried out by Lipton Ice Tea has been banned by the ad watchdog for being “misleading”, with the drinks brand warned not to pull any similar stunts in future.
The PepsiCo-owned brand was the subject of five complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it told consumers on Instagram and TikTok that it was discontinuing its popular peach flavour. While the posts were published on 18 March 2025, it was revealed the next day via social media that the announcement was intended to be an early April Fools.
An April Fools’ Day prank carried out by Lipton Ice Tea has been banned by the ad watchdog for being “misleading”, with the drinks brand warned not to pull any similar stunts in future.
The PepsiCo-owned brand was the subject of five complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it told consumers on Instagram and TikTok that it was discontinuing its popular peach flavour. While the posts were published on 18 March 2025, it was revealed the next day via social media that the announcement was intended to be an early April Fools.
The complaints were made on the basis that the posts were misleading, a contention that was upheld by the ASA. In its response to the complaint, Lipton Tea said the social media posts, which were published organically on its own channels, were intended to be understood as a joke.
The Instagram post depicted a Lipton Ice Tea peach-flavoured can adorned with angel wings above text headlined ‘Rest in Peach’. The text told consumers that the “iconic” peach flavour was being discontinued.
“Who knows? Maybe one day, Peach will make a legendary comeback,” it read, with the sign off “#RiPeach”.
The imagery and use of phrases like “Rest in Peach” were intended to signal the light-hearted nature of the post, Lipton Tea said. It also pointed to comments on the posts from social media users, including the top comment, which had 60,300 likes and said, “This had better be a joke”. The brand said these not only indicated that many users saw the post as a joke, but that they also had visibility in the comments.
Lipton Tea also revealed that the original intention had been to keep the joke running until 1 April (April Fools’ Day) but after backlash from some consumers, it made the call to reveal the prank the very next day to reassure consumers and mitigate any misunderstanding.
It decided to go early with its April Fools prank in order to stand out from other brands also making jokes that day, it said.
While the ASA recognised some humorous elements of the posts, it upheld the complaint that these were misleading, stating this was not enough to offset the potential to make consumers believe the peach product was being continued.
It also considered the timing of the ad in making its ruling, concluding that: “We considered [the posts] gave the overall impression that the product was being discontinued”.
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The issue with giving this impression was that it could influence consumers’ purchasing behaviour.
“We considered that 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,” the ASA wrote in its ruling.
The ad watchdog told Lipton Tea it was not allowed to use these ads again, and that it must ensure no future advertising misleadingly gives the impression that products are being discontinued.
For Lipton Tea’s part, it said it had learnt lessons from the posts and would ensure that any future work of this nature was more clearly signposted and carefully timed to avoid misinterpretation.
