No veritas in Namaqua Wines Extra Lite boxes, ASA finds

It's marketed as "the only Weigh-Less-registered box wine in South Africa". And it definitely does weigh less, but not in a good way, a consumer complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Barbara Hutchison told the ASA that she measured the contents of five-litre boxes of Namaqua Wines Extra Lite and found they contained between four and 4.5litres.

Namaqua refused to respond to the complaint, saying it was not a member of the ASA and did not submit to its jurisdiction. But the ASA decided to make a ruling because Namaqua is a member of the Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use, which has signed up to the advertising code.

"Given [Namaqua's] refusal to engage or to counter the complaint, [we] have no alternative but to find that the claim of containing 'five litres' creates a misleading impression," it said. It ordered Namaqua to drop the claim from its packaging.

Namaqua Wines marketing co-ordinator Annelie Visagie referred Sunday Times queries to CEO Daniël van den Heever, but he did not respond. The company's lawyer, Johannes Spamer, was also unavailable.