A COCA-COLA ADVERT that claimed one of the company’s drinks was “nutritious” has been banned for misleading the public.

Coca-Cola claimed that the product, Vitamin Water, was nutritious because it contains 100 per cent of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C, as well as other vitamins, the BBC reports. However, each bottle also contains the equivalent of five teaspoons of added sugar, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said.

Three people complained to the ASA about the advert, saying that it was misleading. The ASA upheld these complaints because, it said, the public “would not expect” so much sugar to be added to a “nutritious” drink.

Read the ASA adjudication here.

Coca-Cola said it was “disappointed” by the decision, as the drink contained “nutritionally meaningful quantities of several nutrients including 25 per cent of the recommended daily allowance of four B vitamins (B6, B12, niacin and pantothenic acid) along with 100 per cent of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C”.

A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said: “We have always been completely transparent that the drinks contain 23g of sugar in each 500ml bottle, which has been prominently labelled on pack since launch.”

“We do not believe that this detracts from the vitamin and mineral content of the drinks,” she added.