Regruntled.com

Lowering the Bar has the story:

On May 21, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed a complaint filed by a woman who said she had purchased “Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries” because she believed “crunchberries” were real fruit.

The court reasoned:

Thus, a reasonable consumer would not be deceived into believing that the Product in the instant case contained a fruit that does not exist.

It’s pretty obvious what’s going on here.  The Cap’n Crunch people wanted to make their sugary cereal sound healthier, so they made brightly colored cereal balls and put “Berries” on the package.  They advertise to kids during the Saturday morning cartoons.  The kids want their Cap’n Crunch.  The parent, perhaps in a hurry, perhaps not very smart to begin with, chooses Cap’n Crunch with “Berries” instead of Cap’n Crunch without berries.

Tums antacids gives you a choice between Regular Strength, E-X 750 Extra Strength, and Ultra 1000 Maximum Strength.  Same size bottle, same price.  The difference is that Maximum Strength is twice as thick as Regular Strength and you get half as many.  Extra Strength is 50% thicker than Regular Strength and you get two-thirds as many.  Same amount of flavored chalk, different size pieces.  Duhhhh.  Let’s see, should I get Regular Strength and take more of them for severe heartburn, or get Maximum Strength and use a pill splitter if I have mild heartburn?  Ow, now my brain hurts!  I can’t decide, so I’ll compromise on Extra Strength.

Speaking of heartburn, this is like ordering a large pizza and having it cut 6 ways instead of 8 because you’re on a diet.

I am fascinated by the word “flavored” on the spaghetti sauce label.  Not by what it says about the spaghetti sauce, but what it says about society.  The word “meat” is front and center, in big letters, white on pumpkin, let’s say.  Black shadows are added to enhance the contrast . “Flavored” is off to the side, in a much smaller font, in an ultra-low-contrast gold on pumpkin.  I can read “meat” from across the room, but I have to turn the can in the light just so to make out “flavored”.  If this label is not deliberately misleading, what is?

The word “flavored” is there because it’s legally required to be there.  At the same time, low-contrast small print is enough to fulfill the legal requirement.  There is a parallel between the behaviors of industry and government.  Del Monte tries to give the impression that their spaghetti sauce is full of meat, without putting more than trace amounts of actual meat in the product.  Meanwhile, the government tries to give the impression of protecting the consumer, without requiring more than trace amounts of honesty on the label.

Last year’s post on the Cool Surge scam has had a lot of comments this week.  Apparently the Cool Surge people are running the same misleading ads again with the new warm season.  It’s good to see that so many people are googling the product after reading the ads, and I’m happy to play my small part in debunking the thing.

June 28th update: this post originally claimed that the Cool Surge was not technically a swamp cooler.  Wrong!  It turns out that there is a water reservoir not mentioned in the full-page ad.  I apologize for my error.

Green Homes America has a good analysis.  Also see the writeup at Consumer Reports.  Finally, a video of the test Consumer Reports ran:

Lazybone UK has a bath mat with a blood spatter pattern.  Shower curtains to match.

Tokyo correspondent jde sends this item: Hello Kitty beer.

Mordant Orange comments on consumerism.

So I’m digging through the Sunday paper for the comics and I see the Office Depot insert… Jeez, I can’t even read an ad for one thing without seeing an ad for something else?  I can understand when McDonald’s does a promotion like this… the same kids who eat Happy Meals, watch cartoons.  But Office Depot?  Aren’t they diluting their brand?

Or maybe they’re being squeezed by the recession, and can’t afford the flyers without a little help from Dreamworks and Hewlett Packard.

Marketing psychology, or just bad translation?  Maybe it’s supposed to be “Deluxe”. In the US, “Simply Bacon!” might sell better.