Saturday, August 14, 2010

"No Reasonable Person Should Believe Our Advertising"

In a Huffington Post article, "The Dark Side of Vitaminwater," best-selling author John Robbins points out the twisted logic of Coca-Cola in their defense against a lawsuit brought by a public-interest group saying that Vitaminwater has no health benefits. Here's the opening to the article:

Now here's something you wouldn't expect. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company's vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. No surprise there. But how do you think the company is defending itself?

In a staggering feat of twisted logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that "no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."

Does this mean that you'd have to be an unreasonable person to think that a product named "vitaminwater," a product that has been heavily and aggressively marketed as a healthy beverage, actually had health benefits?

Or does it mean that it's okay for a corporation to lie about its products, as long as they can then turn around and claim that no one actually believes their lies?

1 comment:

  1. Scary to think that the public is so easily led by the right words. I don't drink pop nor vitaminwater. Informative post.

    ReplyDelete