![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Awaiting the Count Chocula/Twilight marketing tie-in
I'm not one for legal wonkery, but this is pretty wonderful on a variety of levels: it turns out you can't actually sue the makers of Cap'n Crunch because you led to believe that crunchberries were real fruit. Which is awesome enough on its own, but the details are golden:
The plaintiff, Janine Sugawara, alleged that she had only recently learned to her dismay that said "berries" were in fact simply brightly-colored cereal balls, and that although the product did contain some strawberry fruit concentrate, it was not otherwise redeemed by fruit.
"Otherwise redeemed by fruit" is quickly worming its way into my heart as one of the best turns of phrase I've read in a long time.
According to the complaint, Sugawara and other consumers were misled not only by the use of the word "berries" in the name, but also by the front of the box, which features the product's namesake, Cap'n Crunch, aggressively "thrusting a spoonful of 'Crunchberries' at the prospective buyer."
Say what you will of the plaintiff's intellectual capacities, but whoever crafted the "thrusting a spoonful" bit has earned my respect. "Thrusting Spoonful" goes atop my list of hypothetical band names.
But to put this entire debacle in context, the final graf from the blog entry:
Judge England also noted another federal court had "previously rejected substantially similar claims directed against the packaging of Fruit Loops [sic] cereal, and brought by these same Plaintiff attorneys." He found that their attack on "Crunchberries" should fare no better than their prior claims that "Froot Loops" did not contain real froot.
The plaintiff, Janine Sugawara, alleged that she had only recently learned to her dismay that said "berries" were in fact simply brightly-colored cereal balls, and that although the product did contain some strawberry fruit concentrate, it was not otherwise redeemed by fruit.
"Otherwise redeemed by fruit" is quickly worming its way into my heart as one of the best turns of phrase I've read in a long time.
According to the complaint, Sugawara and other consumers were misled not only by the use of the word "berries" in the name, but also by the front of the box, which features the product's namesake, Cap'n Crunch, aggressively "thrusting a spoonful of 'Crunchberries' at the prospective buyer."
Say what you will of the plaintiff's intellectual capacities, but whoever crafted the "thrusting a spoonful" bit has earned my respect. "Thrusting Spoonful" goes atop my list of hypothetical band names.
But to put this entire debacle in context, the final graf from the blog entry:
Judge England also noted another federal court had "previously rejected substantially similar claims directed against the packaging of Fruit Loops [sic] cereal, and brought by these same Plaintiff attorneys." He found that their attack on "Crunchberries" should fare no better than their prior claims that "Froot Loops" did not contain real froot.
no subject
no subject
You know, I remember when I was a kid I could drink for the garden hose, ride in the back of a pickup truck, climb trees and ride my bicycle without haveing all these THOU SHALT NOTs flying around. I never got sick from drinking from the garden hose, I never was thrown from the back of the pickup truck, I never fell from the tree... ok, I DID fall off my bicycle and skin my knees, but that was being a kid! BFD! You know, I'm 47 years old and all winter I've been thinking about getting a bicycle. And NO I'm not thinking about getting a helmet or football padding. I fall off the thing it's my own damned fault. Period! I also cross at the corners, use the crosswalks, stop when the light says so and look both ways before crossing the street (even if I DO have the green light. I'm not stupid.) It's sad to say this, but the problem with people nowadays is they don't feel like they have to take reaponsibility for their actions. Only losers fail to take responsibility for their own actions. If that makes me a dinosaur than I'm proud to be one.
no subject
People really do need to think about personal responsibility, actions and consequences, riding the bicycle without training wheels (says the woman who has such poor balance that she can only ride a three-wheel bike). But you know what I mean. Kids NEED to learn how to fall and how to pick themselves up.
My husband would perform stupid bike stunts as a kid. He'd scrape skin off his face, break fingers and toes, mangle the bike... and get up, tend to his wounds, and do it again later. His parents would help him with the bandages, say "What have we learned?" and carefully watch to make sure he didn't break his skull.
He went on to do volunteer EMT and lifeguard work, was trained by a master martial artist, knows how to stitch a wound, extract a bullet, set a bone, stop and start a heart, skin a deer, and understand the female mind.
What's with the helicopter parents today?