## Facts

- Tropicana aired a 30-second television commercial for “Tropicana Premium Pack” orange juice featuring Bruce Jenner.
- The commercial visually showed Jenner squeezing an orange and pouring the juice into a Tropicana carton, while audio stated the product was “pure, pasteurized juice as it comes from the orange” and “the only leading brand not made with concentrate and water.”
- Coca-Cola, which sold Minute Maid orange juice, sued under Lanham Act § 43(a), alleging the commercial falsely represented Premium Pack as fresh-squeezed and essentially unprocessed.
- In fact, Premium Pack was pasteurized (heated) and sometimes frozen before packaging.
- Coca-Cola moved for a preliminary injunction to stop further broadcasting, asserting likely success on the merits and irreparable harm from diverted sales and loss of goodwill.
- The record included consumer survey evidence indicating a substantial number of viewers took the ad to mean the product was fresh-squeezed directly from the orange into the carton.
- The district court denied preliminary injunctive relief, and Coca-Cola appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the commercial constituted a false description or representation in commercial advertising actionable under Lanham Act § 43(a) by representing Premium Pack as fresh-squeezed and unprocessed.
2. Whether Coca-Cola satisfied the Second Circuit standard for a preliminary injunction by showing irreparable harm and either (a) likelihood of success on the merits, or (b) sufficiently serious merits questions plus a balance of hardships tipping decidedly in its favor.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit reversed the denial of a preliminary injunction.
- The court ordered that preliminary injunctive relief issue enjoining further broadcasting of the challenged commercial.
- The court found Coca-Cola demonstrated likelihood of success because the ad’s combined visual and audio message was a misrepresentation of a product characteristic—depicting juice as squeezed and poured directly into the carton despite pasteurization and possible freezing.
- The court found irreparable harm from the risk that a mass-media “fresh-squeezed” superiority claim would divert sales and damage market position and goodwill in ways not readily measurable by money damages.

## Legal Principles

- A preliminary injunction requires a showing of likely irreparable harm and either (1) likelihood of success on the merits or (2) sufficiently serious questions on the merits and a balance of hardships tipping decidedly toward the movant.
- Lanham Act § 43(a) reaches false or misleading representations of fact in commercial advertising that misrepresent the nature, characteristics, or qualities of goods and are likely to damage a competitor.
- Television visuals can constitute actionable factual representations; the visual depiction, not only spoken claims, is part of the message evaluated for falsity.
- When an advertisement is literally false, a court may find likely success on the merits without requiring proof of actual consumer confusion or deception; consumer survey evidence may still corroborate the false message’s impact.
- Misstatements about a product’s composition or process of production may be treated as misrepresentations about an “inherent quality or characteristic” under § 43(a).

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit held that Tropicana’s commercial, viewed as an integrated audio-visual presentation, conveyed a literally false claim that Premium Pack was fresh-squeezed and essentially unprocessed, and that Coca-Cola showed irreparable competitive injury from the campaign; the court therefore reversed and directed entry of a preliminary injunction barring further airing of the advertisement.


Coca-Cola Co. v. Tropicana Prods., Inc., 690 F.2d 312 (2d Cir. 1982)