Posts Tagged ‘ false advertising ’

Irresponsible Advertising? Kenneth Cole Tweet Nothing vs VitaminWater Ads

February 4th, 2011. By AbiK

Not Funny

The Kenneth Cole reaction (couldn’t resist)—i.e., the outburst over his—or his ghostwriting social media whiz—comment on Twitter the other day raised the question of responsible marketing for many—heck, it’s been front page news all over the media. For those of you who missed it, this was the tweet:

“Millions are in an uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC”

Cole followed up later in the day by taking that tweet down and posting a mea culpa:

“Re Egypt tweet: we weren’t intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment -KC”

Ok. Fine. Yes, the situation in Cairo is serious. Very serious. And yes, there are many who would take offense (clearly) at Cole using the situation to grab a cheap marketing shot. But those who have followed Kenneth Cole for many years are well-accustomed to his brand of advertising—and, like it or not, it’s provocative—intentionally so. And, if so inclined—you can even purchase the coffee table book, Footnotes, which takes you through Cole’s first twenty years of advertising.

But now let’s contrast the Kenneth Cole uproar with the latest ad campaign from VitaminWater. Maybe you’ve heard that the National Consumers League (NCL, a watchdog group) has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over VitaminWater’s use of ad copy such as: “Flu shots are so last year.” The inference, of course, being that in some way, shape, or form VitaminWater is on a par—at the least—or superior to—at the worst—getting a flu shot.

The complaint from the NCL charges that such advertising is dangerously misleading. To add to that, ajc.com quotes Sally Greenberg, executive director of NCL as stating, “One of the reasons we went after them was the claims we so outlandish, downright reckless.”

Funny

VitaminWater (aka Glaceau VitaminWater) is owned by Coca-Cola—it’s founder, Michael Repole, sold it to Coke for $4.1 billion in 2007 and Repole’s recently made headlines for his interest in owning a stake in the NY Mets. Coca-Cola has responded to NCL’s criticism by saying that the ads are meant to be funny.

I can buy that—I like humor. But let’s look at the context here as well. Pick up a bottle of VitaminWater (note, not an endorsement here—just pick one up off the store shelf) and read the label. You’ll find things like “vitamins + water = all you need”. Or like the picture shown here, “that’s like brushing your teeth twice”—bet your dentist will like that one.

That’s not humor—that’s irresponsible.

Humor in advertising is that Staples “Most Wonderful Time of the Year” 30-second spot. Or take just about any Super Bowl ad—Pepsi, Doritos, Volkswagon, GoDaddy, Bud Light—they do “funny”. Betty White = Funny.

No one is going to experience undue harm as a result of having read Kenneth Cole’s tweet. What? Some Kenneth Cole fanatic is going to break a fingernail racing to click her mouse to get to Cole’s bit.ly link for his new spring collection? Please. On the other hand, when you put on a food or drink label that your product is “like brushing your teeth twice” when it’s not, well, that’s misleading. Ditto when you use display ads touting that “flu shots are so last year”.

What? I should drink sugar water instead?

Tags: Coca-Cola, false advertising, Fraud, FTC, Kenneth Cole, Misleading Advertising, National Consumers League, Responsible Advertising, Vitamin Water, VitaminWater
Posted in Consumer Fraud, Emerging Issues | No Comments »

Ben & Jerry’s Agrees to Lose “All Natural” Claim; On to FRS…

September 30th, 2010. By LucyC

Those bastions of all that is good about ice cream—Ben & Jerry’s—had their wrists slapped recently over the inappropriate use of the phrase “All Natural”. And they, unlike some other companies I will mention, had the good sense to do something about the false claim. 

Apparently, there are about 48 of Ben & Jerry’s products that aren’t ‘All Natural’, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nutrition and food safety watchdog group based in Washington, DC.  

In case you’re wondering just what the heck constitutes ‘natural’, information on the CSPI website states that “The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates meat and poultry, lets products be labeled “natural” if they do not include artificial colors or ingredients, or are not more than “minimally processed,” by which the agency means a process that doesn’t fundamentally alter the raw ingredient. But the FDA, which regulates all other foods, has no such definition. It told CSPI several years ago that defining the term was “not among our enforcement priorities.” 

Of course the irony in this is that the sugar and cream in ice cream will likely cause more harm to your arteries—not to mention your teeth—than most of the “unnatural products” in Ben & Jerry’s ice creams and frozen yogurts, products including alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil. 

Nevertheless, Ben and Jerry’s, not wishing to tarnish their best of the best image, have agreed to phase out the use of “All Natural” claims on their labels. 

Oh, that all manufacturers were so obliging. Not so in the instance of FRS Healthy Energy Drink, a line of products sold by the FRS Company and distributed by PepsiCo. The product Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Ben & Jerry's, Coca-Cola, Coke, false advertising, FRS Energy Drink, VitaminWater
Posted in Consumer Fraud, Emerging Issues | No Comments »

Food for Thought: Calorie Counts Inaccurate

January 6th, 2010. By Kristine B

So, if you’re anything like me, you probably made one of those oh-so-common New Year’s resolutions. In fact, my bet is many of us out there resolved to ourselves at around midnight on New Year’s Eve that this year, we were going to lose some weight (and every year around this time, I begin to really regret that resolution—oh chocolate, how I miss you). For some people, it’s a couple of pounds, for others, it’s a bit more. But, regardless of how much we had to lose, we all went into January 1, 2010 thinking about dropping some pounds and fitting into a smaller clothing size. 

The next few days are spent making healthy decisions. I’ve had more salads over the past few days than I had in all of December. Those healthy decisions include checking the calorie counts of any foods we buy and choosing lower calorie foods at restaurants (oh French fries, how I miss you). So, I can imagine many of you were shocked, like me, to learn that some foods in grocery stores and restaurants carry inaccurate calorie counts. 

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect that the calories would be correct right down to the decimal. Especially with restaurant foods, there is a bit of give and take—sometimes the chef uses a little Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: calories, false advertising, frozen food, restaurants
Posted in Emerging Issues | 1 Comment »