Coles fined $2.5m for misleading advertising on claims bread products were ‘baked today’
A 2012 Coles bakery ad featuring Curtis Stone
Supermarket giant Coles has been order to pay penalties of $2.5m for “substantial and serious” misleading marketing claims that bread products were “baked today” or “freshly baked in-store”.
Last year the Federal Court found that claims that products were “Baked Today, Sold Today” and in some cases “Freshly Baked In-Store”, were false, misleading and deceptive due to them being partially baked and frozen off site by a supplier, transported and ‘finished’ at in-store bakeries within Coles supermarkets.
In a statement Coles said it did not “deliberately set out to mislead anybody” but accepted “we could have done a better job explaining how these products are made”.
You would think that bakeries such as Bakers Delight would be permitted to some recompense in view of this finding.
“In talking to customers about our bread range we did not deliberately set out to mislead anybody, but we accept that we could have done a better job in explaining how these products are made.”
I seem to recall that the court found that there was concern within Coles about the campaign, but that they pushed ahead anyway? And that it was pretty clear that it WAS intentional?
“…We are proud of the quality of our bread, whether baked from scratch in-store or ‘par baked’ by our Australian suppliers and finished in our ovens.”
What about the bread ‘par baked’ (mostly baked, according to the court’s findings) overseas?
This is ridiculous!!!! I feel betrayed and honestly I’m disgusted. Brings tears to my eyes when I read such articles. #PrayForOurBread
– Lucas Naglitch