A Beijing court has rejected the claim of a Chinese man and his grandson for reputation damage in consuming a KFC "teadog set meal", the local media reported on Thursday.

Tongzhou District court ruled on Tuesday that the two plaintiffs surnamed Jin would not get compensation from the KFC fast-food chain as they couldn't provide substantive evidence to prove the set meal had led to a "lower social evaluation" and reputation damage to them, as they claimed.

According to The Beijing News, the Jins bought a "teadog set meal" in a KFC store in the capital's east Tongzhou District on Dec. 15. The two had found an advert in the shop promoting the set meal, which the elder Jin thought meant man and dog sharing the meal.

He then sued KFC for insulting consumers, because "according to the advertisement, my grandson has eaten dog food and we two have become 'dog friends'", -- a term that means "a dissolute company" in Chinese.

Representatives for KFC, however, said the set meal was so named because consumers could get a calendar featuring teadogs, a Japanese cartoon image, if they paid extra money through a promotion.

KFC argued the advertisement was meant to convey the message that teadogs were men's good friends, and the advert itself didn't break the law.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2008)