Costa Coffee “7 out of 10” advertising cleared by ASA

The Advertising Standards Agency has not upheld any of the complaints brought by Starbucks against Costa Coffee’s successful “7 out of 10” advertising campaign.

Starbucks had alleged that the advertising headlines “Starbucks Drinkers Prefer Costa” and “7 Out of 10 Coffee Lovers Prefer Costa” were misleading and that the research that led to Costa’s claims was flawed.

Jim Slater, Marketing Director of Costa Coffee, said:

"Costa has been totally exonerated. The adjudication is good news, but not a surprise. The ASA has run an extremely thorough investigation, which has found Starbuck’s complaints to be without merit: 7 out of 10 coffee lovers really do prefer Costa cappuccino.”

The credible, independent research conducted in late 2008 found that 7 out of 10 coffee lovers indisputably preferred Costa cappuccino to Starbucks and Caffè Nero when sampled in a blind taste test.

The campaign played an important part in helping Costa Coffee sales increase by 23.4%, with like-for-like sales increasing 5.5% in 2009/10.