Kellogs false advertising

[coach hale]

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FTC attacks Kellogg cereal ads. Kellogg Company, the world's leading producer of cereal, has agreed to settle FTC charges that advertising claims touting a breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats as "clinically shown to improve kids' attentiveness by nearly 20%" were false and violated federal law. According to the FTC complaint, Kellogg claimed in a national advertising campaign that a breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal had been shown to improve children's attentiveness by nearly 20%. However, the clinical study to which the ads referred found that only about half the cereal-eaters showed any improvement in attentiveness, and only about one in nine improved by 20% or more. The proposed settlement bars deceptive or misleading cognitive health claims for Kellogg's breakfast foods and snack foods and bars the company from misrepresenting any tests or studies. The settlement contains no admission of wrongdoing or financial penalty. [Kellogg settles FTC charges that ads for Frosted Mini-Wheats were false. FTC
news release, April 20, 2009] http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/04/ kellogg.shtm Noting that Kellogg's 2007 sales exceeded $11 billion, Dr. Stephen Barrett submitted the following public comment to the FTC:

"I believe that Kellogg should be required to pay a fine because its advertising was unconscionable. The fact that the ad misrepresented the numbers in the study was only part of the problem. The study itself was deliberately designed to be misinterpreted because it compared children who were hungry (no breakfast) to children who were fed. A real study to determine the value of Mini-Wheats would compare children who had various types of breakfast. Your failure to press for a fine signals other companies to do the same. If you really want to deter wrongdoing, you should also insist that Kellogg issue a corrective ad stating that the study itself was poorly designed."

Thanks,
Coach Hale
www.maxcondition.com

[Lost Dog]

I agree. Do you have a suggestion on who to write?

[LisaS]

Originally Posted by coach hale

The proposed settlement bars deceptive or misleading cognitive health claims for Kellogg's breakfast foods and snack foods and bars the company from misrepresenting any tests or studies.

you would think this would be a given set of conditions for advertising and not something novel agreed to only as part of a lawsuit settlement.
sheesh.

[twoolf]

Funny -- I saw that commercial for the first time yesterday -- six days after the FTC news release.

[emofree]

Hmm haven't seen the commercial yet for the Kellogs. Well I guess false advertising is really common everywhere. I was shock when I saw this one and can't believe that Kellogs would do a false advertising.

[cycomiko]

Its not so much false advertising, but using averages to support their marketing...

The FDA loves averages, the FTC, not so much