Just when you think that human stupidity and lack of personal responsibility have reached their glorious apex, something comes along that makes you realize: People can get dumber.
Welch’s Food, Inc is being sued by two mothers, Aliza Atik and Winnie Lau, in a class action lawsuit for, well, making people want to buy their fruit snacks.
Two women are leading the suit that claims Welch’s engaged in a deceptive marketing campaign. They believe that slick slogans and pictures of fresh fruits on the bags made them buy a product that they would have otherwise avoided for being too unhealthy.
That’s right. Welch’s seems to be getting sued for their advertising doing its job. Though, they may be on the hook for more than that.
The food company has advertised for years that the fruit snacks contained real fruit. Considering they aren’t actually pieces of fruit but instead gummies shaped into colorful bites, one would logically assume that people aren’t thinking they are a healthy substitute for fruit?
Yes, they are.
In that case, a white russian is a great serving of calcium, bloody marys are good for a serving of vegetables, and beer counts splendidly as a serving of whole grains, right?
The class action suit really only has sticking power when it comes to the letter of the law. So of course, that is what is being argued into the ground.
Instead of quoting lots of legal jargon, the plaintiffs’ argument can be summed up thus:
“You said on the package that there was fruit in them, so we gave them to our kids on blind faith that ‘juice concentrate’ would make up for them not eating say, a real apple. We are mad. Give us money.”
Actually, in the interest of fairness, you decide if that isn’t the intent of the statement the women made:
“Welch Foods has deceived shoppers by engaging in a deceptive marketing campaign to convince consumers that Welch’s Fruit Snacks contained significant amounts of the actual fruits shown in the marketing and on the labeling of the products, were nutritious and healthful to consume, and were more healthful than similar products,”
Who thinks that fruit snacks are actually a healthy alternative? They are gelatin squished into shapes pleasing to children (and the author).
This cry for attention has of course gotten the easy-squeaky-wheel arguing about labeling, ingredients, and whether or not the writing on the products we buy is easy enough for us to understand. In fact Kashi, Kraft, and Chef Boyardee have all recently come under fire for similar label-related reasons.
Aliza Atik and Winnie Lau, if you need help understanding that fruit doesn’t normally come in boxes with little pouches inside, someone in the produce section will help you. The produce section is usually just inside the door to the left or the right. It’s full of real life, non-gelatin, versions of the things that you’re mad at Welch’s over.
The rest of us will continue to feed our kids vegetables and fruit and teach them that sugary snacks are a “sometimes” food so they don’t grow up looking to the legal system to fill the holes in their common sense.
