Consumer Law

Signs of life at the FTC

By Stephen Gardner

Yesterday, the FTC showed significant signs of life, announcing a consent decree against the Kellogg Company for claiming that it had scientific proof that its Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal improved children's attentiveness by 20 percent (!!!).

In terms of sheer gall in marketing food for kids, Kellogg's efforts to promote this sugary cereal as an alternative to ADD medication is surpassed recently only by Coke's claim (in Australia) that  Coca-Cola cannot contribute to weight gain, obesity and tooth decay (!!!!!). The Australian government shut down those claims.

In the FTC action, the most notable thing (aside from Kellogg's aforementioned gall) was this statement by the newly appointed Chair of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz:

After years of not-so-benign neglect of consumers, it's good to see that the Commission will focus more attention on the companies who are setting the standards for deceptive advertising, rather than just taking action against smaller companies.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on April 21, 2009 (boomark / email).