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Cocoa Krispies False Advertising Lawsuit – The Settlement

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Kellogg’s has announced a settlement in a class action suit filed against the company last year for false advertising. You may recall the bold claims on Cocoa Krispies boxes alluding to improved immunity for kids. We called that one out back in 2009.

The $2.5 million settlement is a way for Kellogg’s to get off the hook without admitting guilt, and for consumers to get a little bit of money back.

If you’re a krispies kustomer, you may be entitled to $15 as part of the settlement. It’s a pain in the butt to get your money back, but here’s a link with instructions – www.cerealadvertisingsettlement.com. You need to file by Nov 16.

The real winners in these trials / settlements are the lawyers who take home a nice big chunk of the $2.5 million.

What you need to know:

Food companies are continually pushing the envelope in product development and more so in product marketing. It’s not surprising anymore to see some of the ridiculous things companies are doing to convince us that their candy is actually health food.

Cocoa Krispies is 40% sugar by weight. How does that support a child’s immune system?

The bigger issue is that for every lawsuit, there are tens or even hundreds of smaller infractions by food marketeers that are perhaps legal, but not moral. One of our “favorite” claims is “MADE WITH REAL FRUIT” on junk foods whose fruit content constitutes less than 3 percent of an otherwise sugar, fat, and chemical laden concoction.

The FDA and FTC have very limited resources to go after each infringement. Should we be happy that private law firms are selectively doing this instead?

What to do at the supermarket:

Read read read the ingredient list and nutrition label if you really want to know what’s in your food.

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  • Me

    Please don’t bash the lawyers. As you say, the govt doesn’t have the resources to go after all the false health claims. The real benefit to these lawsuits is the curbing of Big Food’s outrageous health claims, so the “real winners” are consumers in general, not the lawyers.

  • Me

    Please don’t bash the lawyers. As you say, the govt doesn’t have the resources to go after all the false health claims. The real benefit to these lawsuits is the curbing of Big Food’s outrageous health claims, so the “real winners” are consumers in general, not the lawyers.

  • jmoiles

    Our government enables this sort of corporate behavior.  It just shouldn’t be tolerated. 

    http://www.peaceandgoodeating.com

  • Karyn

    Teaching logic and critical thinking at all levels of school, starting in elementary school, would go a long way towards making such advertising ineffective in the first place.

  • Shields Emily

    While I do think a lot of blame needs to be placed on the government for allowing this to happen, I am still blown away that a human being would look at a box of Cocoa Krispies that despite looking at the ingredient list, is already fully aware that this cereal is basically rice puffs, sugar and chocolate (amongst a long list of other ingredients, most of which we can’t identify) and thing for one second that there could POSSIBLY be any sort of health benefit, especially for child. It just makes me incredibly sad that first, the government allows this to take place in the first place but also that people have given up all power to advertising schemes instead of taking a second to think for themselves and whether or not the foods that they are feeding themselves and their families is healthy. I’m definitely guilty of eating processed foods to a point, but never am I under the misconception that they hold some sort of extra nutritional value whether there’s “extra fiber” or “real fruit.” Real nutritious food doesn’t need these labels.
    Sorry, I’ll end it here, I’ve rambled enough. This is just a topic very close to me, I’m getting ready to pursue a graduate thesis around it. Thank you for the post! It just proves that this is a continuous problem that is greatly affecting our health. I just wish the government would view us as humans rather than dollar signs.