Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Does Splenda have some splainin' to do?
What's an artificial sweetener to do? You try to build a little brand awareness but then your competitors go and call bullshit on you. It's a class-action cluster. And it's a real problem: should competitors be allowed to cripple you with expensive lawsuits? Should they be able to harass you into not advertising? And why didn't I go to law school so I could get rich off of all this?
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Splenda does have some explaining to do. The article relates to the claim that Splenda is "Made from Sugar so it Tastes Like Sugar". What they don't mention is that Sucralose is a modified glucose molecule combined w/ CHLORINE. Chlorine is a poison. Many websites claim that sucralose (i.e. Splenda) can cause major allergic reactions. The company that makes Splenda claims that there is no harm whatsoever in injesting this product. Personally, i feel that, due to the severely limited testing of the product, i will never touch the stuff. It is a catch-22, though. They are putting Sucralose in everything now; more often than not the package is only labeled in the ingredients as Sucralose. If someone was not aware of the relation of sucralose and splenda they could be injesting a potentially dangerous product.
The mistake that Splenda made was assuming that a modified sugar molecule was the same as a sugar molecule. Consumers my be stupid, but their competitors are not. In the event that their competitors can ammass enough evidence showing the physical harms of Splenda, McNeil is doomed....
O.k., things like this:
class-actions claiming Gillette harmed consumers with its ads were filed in eight states.
Are just ridiculous. But the Splenda thing? That's ingested, and should be held to a high standard.
And law school only takes 3 years--so let's get going!
Wow. What great comments from you both.
Randy -- thanks for stopping by and explaining what, exactly, Splenda is. (I didn't know.) Since competitors regularly sue each other over claims, Splenda had to expect this. I imagine tons of lawyers approved every single syllable of their ad claims. Of course, that doesn't mean they were right. To me, their claim seems quite bold and just a little bit confusing.
Suzan -- law school huh? Doesn't that take good grades? Uh, yeeaahhh. That might be a problem.
Irene, not every law school needs good grades. Why, up in Ann Arbor there is the Ave Maria Law School (which may or may not be accredited. I think they're working on it.) which will pay your tuition! You don't even have to apply to them (I got a nice letter from them a couple of years ago asking me to go).
Hmm. No admission requirements, no tuition and I bet they don't even make you "attend" "class." Sign me up!
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