The arrival of Dartington beer glasses in our shop reminds me that the very first consumer protection law concerned lager. Lager beer was created in Bavaria and, to give customers confidence that it was pure, Duke Wilhelm IV decreed in 1516 that lager could only be brewed from barley, malt, hops and water- a law that still applies today.

Nowadays, as consumers, we're used to seeing ingredients listed on all food, drink and even cosmetics packaging. We retailers know that we must be accurate in our descriptions of our products and sale offers or face the wrath of the trading standards office or the Advertising Standards Authority.

Therefore I found it interesting that the ASA recently said it was OK for Cheryl Cole to be wearing hair extensions (a two second written message to this effect appears) when she extolled the virtues of a shampoo in a TV ad. Apparently so long as the product did what it claimed, it didn't matter that the hair that appeared to be illustrating the claim was false. I wonder what Duke Wilhelm would have said?