Land O’Lakes Inc. has won a dispute with the GFA Brands Inc. regarding the company’s advertising of their margarine brand Smart Balance Buttery Spread. The national advertising division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus ruled that the company discontinue ads claiming the Buttery Spread tastes like butter.

The competitor, GFA Brands Inc., sells Smart Balance Buttery Spread, which the company claimed in television advertisements “cooks like butter, spreads like butter and tastes like butter.” One ad claimed that Smart Balance “tastes most like butter — even better!”

Everyone knows that taste is subjective, GFA Brands responded, so the advertising was meant as “puffery,” a term used in advertising to mean a promotional claim that no one takes literally. The company argued that it was sensitive to the issue and had voluntarily stopped using the “even better” advertisement. The argument didn’t stick. The advertising bureau recommended that GFA discontinue ads claiming that Buttery Spread tastes like butter.