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Boutique coffee roaster Michael Allpress has taken on petroleum giant BP - and won.
Allpress, owner of Auckland-based coffee roasting business Espresso, saw red last week over a television commercial he believed was damaging to his up-market brand.
Service station chain BP - which owns the New Zealand Wild Bean barista coffee franchise - has been screening an advertisement depicting a woman holding a distinctive Allpress-like cup and spitting out the drink with an expression of distaste.
The 30-second commercial, produced by advertising agency giant Ogilvy, shows a series of scenes in which coffee is sent flying in disgust.
The high-budget advertisement ends by showing a cup of Wild Bean, and the statement: "Wild Bean. The only one."
After "discussions" and "correspondence" between BP and Allpress, the advert has been modified and the image of the Allpress-like cup removed.
"We have fielded many comments from customers - it doesn't make Wild Bean look very good," Allpress, whose family-run business has been around for 20 years, told the Herald on Sunday.
"They have responded fairly - but it certainly doesn't mitigate the damage that may have been caused."
Allpress criticised the commercial's concept: "If they want to sell more coffee, why is there an ad showing people spitting out coffee?"
It is understood Allpress sought legal advice over the matter.
Jeremy Davis, co-director of salad bar Toss, said his Auckland High St store sold Allpress coffee, and he, too, was disturbed by the Wild Bean commercial. "When I saw the ad, I instantly recognised the Allpress cup," he said.
Diana Stretch, communications and external affairs manager at BP defended the fuel company's marketing activities. She told the Herald on Sunday in a written statement that the television commercial, designed as part of a branding campaign, never intended to show a cup that looked like an Allpress one.
"In the scene in question, the cup selected had generic bands of 'coffee' tones in the design in a manner that was sympathetic to the scene.
"However, no reference to the Allpress brand was intended." Stretch wrote that the advert's modification, which occurred under urgency last week, was "as a gesture of goodwill". Allpress, a sister company of Australia's Brown Bean Green Coffee Merchants, has its paper cups manufactured exclusively by a New Zealand company, and they are not sold to any other firm.
Industry sources estimated changes to the original advert would have cost several thousand dollars.
