Castle wins the lite battle - Amstel must think again

12 February 2015 - 02:35 By Penelope Mashego
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Castle Lite remains the heavyweight in the "lite" sector of the beer market after out-punching a competitor that has been ordered to change the appearance of its cans and six-pack wrappers.

SA Breweries, manufacturer of Castle Lite, complained to the Advertising Standards of Authority of SA that the silver and green that Brandhouse Beverages, local makers of Amstel Lager, used for its Amstel Lite cans was "almost identical to the signature combination in the Castle Lite packaging".

The mainly silver and green plastic shrink-wrap of the six-pack cans and bottles was also nearly identical, SAB said.

SAB complained about the use of the word "Lite" on the Amstel low-calorie beer launched in August.

All this served to "render the products indistinguishable in trade", SAB said.

The authority ruled in SAB's favour and ordered Brandhouse to withdraw the offending Amstel Lite packaging within three months.

Brandhouse said that SAB was not the only company that used green and silver packaging for light beer and could not claim exclusive rights to the use of the colours.

But the ASA said Castle Lite had "exclusively" used its colours, as well as the word "Lite", for over 20 years and "the use of similar elements by Amstel Lite has effectively done away with the uniqueness of these features of the Castle Lite packaging".

Brandhouse's corporate relations director, Michael Mabasa, said: "We are disappointed by the ruling. We are considering [it] and our options."

Head of media and communications at SAB Robyn Chalmers said she could not comment until Brandhouse had confirmed whether it would appeal.

Castle Lite is one of SAB's biggest sellers.

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