{"id":6897,"date":"2013-06-02T20:23:12","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T00:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=6897"},"modified":"2015-03-09T13:48:44","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T17:48:44","slug":"kellogg-finally-settles-ftc-lawsuit-for-4-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/kellogg-finally-settles-ftc-lawsuit-for-4-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Kellogg Finally Settles FTC Lawsuit for $4 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wheels of justice turn slowly… often painfully so.<\/p>\n

Back in 2009, Kellogg was sued by the FTC for deceptive advertising, over claims that its “Frosted Mini-Wheats” cereal would make kids more attentive in school<\/a>. For example, according to a Kellogg press release (cited in the FTC complaint<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Keeping ‘Em Full and Focused<\/strong>
\nKellogg recently commissioned research to measure the effect on kids of eating a breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats<\/em>\u00ae cereal. An independent research group conducted a series of standardized, cognitive tests on children 8 to 12 who ate either a breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats<\/em>\u00ae cereal or water. The result? The children who ate a breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats<\/em>\u00ae cereal had a nearly 20% improvement in attentiveness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Similar language appeared on product packages, as well as in online, television and print ads. You could drive a truck through the holes in this claim (I mean, c’mon – water vs. cereal???), but it gets worse. Turns out that Kellogg was being less-than-honest about that “nearly 20%” figure.<\/p>\n

In truth and in fact, eating a bowl of Kellogg’s\u00ae Frosted Mini-Wheats\u00ae cereal for breakfast is not clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20%. In the clinical study referred to in respondent’s advertisements, for example, only about half the kids who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats\u00ae cereal showed any improvement after three hours as compared to their pre-breakfast baseline. In addition, overall, only one in seven kids who ate the cereal improved their attentiveness by 18% or more, and only about one in nine improved by 20% or more. Therefore the representation set forth in paragraph 6 was, and is, false or misleading.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well whaddya know? Kellogg misrepresented the results of an unpublished, non-peer-reviewed study that it commissioned to support its product advertising! Color me surprised!<\/p>\n

\"Surprised

Actually, color me sarcastic. I’m not really surprised at all.<\/p><\/div>\n

At any rate, fast forward to this week… Kellogg has finally<\/em> settled with the FTC for $4 million dollars. According to the AP<\/a>, consumers who purchased the cereal during the period the ad claims were made can apply for refunds of $5.00 per box (up to three boxes). Seems cheap to me, but hopefully it’s enough to discourage Kellogg from making similarly shady claims in the future.<\/p>\n

(h\/t the Consumerist<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The wheels of justice turn slowly… often painfully so. Back in 2009, Kellogg was sued by the FTC for deceptive advertising, over claims that its “Frosted Mini-Wheats” cereal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[475,975],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6897"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10042,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6897\/revisions\/10042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}