Friday, January 16, 2009
CSPI Sues Coke Over VitaminWater Claims
Suddenly Vitaminwater doesn’t look so healthy after all. At least not to the Center for Science in Public Interest and participants in the class action lawsuit against Coca-Cola. The suit states that the Coke-owned brand is guilty of deceptive and unsubstantiated claims.Glacéau Vitaminwater has long been marketed as a healthy alternative to other beverages thanks to added vitamins and minerals. CSPI has taken issue with many claims associated with its drinks like “rescue,” “energy” and “endurance.”
“We had been looking at Vitaminwater for a number of months. Our concern is flavored sugar water shouldn’t be marketed as a health drink,” CSPI litigation director Steve Gardner told Brandweek. “We were then contacted by two small law firms who were already working together. Their client had the same complaint we did so we joined forces.”
The brand's marketing claims the products can, among other things, reduce the risk of chronic disease and promote healthy joints. The health advocacy group feels the drink is more likely to do harm than good, considering the 33 grams of sugar. The marketing of Vitaminwater “is truly an irresponsible act by Coca-Cola. They know it is flavored snake oil,” said Gardner.
He pointed to the brand's double labeling practices as "them just thumbing their nose at the Federal Drug Administration and the consumer." Specifically, the servings of calories and other "bad stuff" are shown per every eight ounces while the vitamins and minerals are labeled per bottle.
This is not Coke’s first run in with CSPI. In 2007, the group sued the company over claims that its Enviga brand burns more calories than it consumes resulting in weight loss. The suit is still pending.
Coke has already come under fire from the FDA. Last month it sent Coke CEO Muhtar Kent a letter stating that Diet Coke Plus' nutrient claims are in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Source
Labels: Coca-Cola, Coke, CSPI, deceit, lawsuit, sugar, Vitamin Water, VitaminWater
Monday, October 20, 2008
NEWSBEAT: Legal Drama For Organic Beauty Companies
Beloved crunchy beauty brand Dr. Bronner's has gotten the green light to proceed with its lawsuit against other brands that claim to be organic, including Stella McCartney CARE, Jason Natural, Avalon Organics and Nature's Gate Organics. I have to admit, when the news first broke about this I wondered what E.H. Bronner, who would have been 100 this year, would have thought. Beauty nerd that I am, I'm well aware of the founder's complicated past (his parents were killed in the Holocaust, he escaped from a mental institution, and he read a lot of Kipling). But, Bronner was very concerned about morality and it will be interesting to see how his company's claim about "organic noise" in the natural product market will continue to unfold. This Summer the company settled with former defendant Juice Beauty who agreed to reformulate problem products and be petrochemical-free by February 2010.
To read the full press release from the Organic Consumers Association, click here.
Labels: Dr. Bronner's, lawsuit, organic make-up, organics
Monday, May 19, 2008
Dannon's Deception!
Probiotics are the new the cure-all craze. If you believe some food labels, they can solve everything from bad digestion to acne to obesity to a bad attitude. To help further their health claims, the marketing team at Dannon, which makes Activia, took things a step further. Banking on the power of suggestion, they came up with new names for two strains of bacteria found in their yogurt: bifidus regularis, which supposedly helps regulate your digestive system and L. casei immunitas, which, you guessed it, supposedly strengthens your immune system. Probiotics may have some benefits, but most yogurts contain them—the reason why there is a class action lawsuit accusing Dannon of a false advertising campaign promoting the benefits of their yogurt over others. The suit charges that the claims merely convince consumers to pay more. But how else would the marketing team get paid?Source
Labels: Dannon, deceit, health trend, lawsuit, Probiotics, yogurt
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Airborne Controversy
Airborne, the herbal-supplement maker, has agreed to pay through the nose - $23.3 million to be exact - to settle a class-action suit charging it falsely advertised its best-selling products can cure the common cold.
The company denies any wrongdoing but has agreed to settle the suit, filed in 2006.
"Airborne is basically an overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that's been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed," said David Schardt, a senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the parties to the suit.
"There's no credible evidence that what's in Airborne can prevent colds."
Airborne is the brainchild of Victoria Knight-McDowell, a former second-grade teacher in Carmel, Calif., and her husband, Rider McDowell, a freelance writer.According to her Web site, Knight-McDowell created Airborne in 1999 after getting one cold after another from her young students.
As a marketing strategy, the McDowells insisted drugstores place the product with cold medicines, even though it's a dietary supplement.As long as makers of dietary supplements don't make specific health claims, they don't have to prove to the feds that the products work.
That was the rub.
Airborne said its claim for curing the common cold was based on a clinical trial.
Some medical experts have cautioned that a possible downside to using Airborne is that it may provide too much vitamin A. Two of the pills provide 10,000 IU, considered the maximum safe level - and yet users are urged to take three of the pills daily.Source
Labels: Airborne, controversy, CSPI, David Schardt, lawsuit, Vitamin A
