Hershey's is facing a class-action lawsuit over its Reese's packaging, with customers claiming deceptive marketing practices. Is this false advertising or another frivolous case?
Americans are litigious. We are an absolutely lawsuit-happy culture, with folks suing over even the most minor infractions. The latest news in the history of frivolous legal cases comes from Florida (why does all this questionable stuff happen in Florida?), where a class action suit was filed claiming Hershey's is practicing deceptive marketing with one of its Reese's products.
The Hershey Company is facing a federal class action lawsuit because four customers had their feelz bruised by some Reese's packaging. According to the lawsuit, the packaging contains a false representation of what a product looks like. A new Reese's product designed as a tie-in for the upcoming summer Olympics in Paris depicts a chocolate-shaped "medal" with a simple carving of a circle for the medal and a V-shape to represent the ribbon. Once unwrapped, it seems the actual product has no such etchings or flourishes. The four customers in Florida (Eduardo Granados, Debra Kennick, Abdjul Martin, and Nathan Vidal) have sued the chocolate maker for misleading customers. Our question is, were these litigants going to eat the product or hang it on their wall? It's chocolate - it wouldn't be a very long-lasting knickknack addition to their home decor.
According to NPR, the lawsuit claims, "Hershey's deceptive advertising is causing many consumers to purchase the products because of the cool and beautiful carved out designs on the products' packaging when they would not have purchased the products if they were truthfully advertised." But the recreation of a medal on this chocolate bar isn't all that "cool" or "beautiful." In fact, if we hadn't researched that it's supposed to represent a medal we would have just been baffled about what it's supposed to be. The only other indicator of its inspiration is the word "MEDALS" on the wrapper.
And they're not just going after the Reese's Medal; the other chocolate candies listed in the lawsuit include confections that are supposed to look like pumpkins, ghosts, bats, snowmen, stockings, bells, and footballs. The footballs caused further problems because, according to the photo in the lawsuit, the football "looks like eggs!!" But I mean, it's a freaking oval. Footballs are freaking oval! The lawsuit further says the company exaggerated product details within the last two to three years to goose sales and revenue. The suit calls upon several revved-up YouTube commenters who claim Reese's has gone too far and that their seasonally inspired candies lied to them. OK seriously? That's where we are now? We're suing candy companies for having bad art direction in their chocolate molds? We are not saying that companies shouldn't be truthful in their marketing but c'mon folks. This is a stretch, to say the least.
The class action lawsuit has many potential litigants and includes the purchase price for all sales of the products in Florida during the past three years, which exceeds $5 million. We're not sure if these folks were really upset by the miscommunicated wrapper graphics or if they are just running a get-rich-quick scheme. If it's the latter, we have some advice for them - try scratch-off tickets. You'd have a better chance of finding your fortune with those.