Vitaminwater VS Nutella
Verdict DROP IT DROP IT
The Reality When consumers sued Coca-Cola in 2009 over these claims, the company's own legal defense -- raised in its motion to dismiss -- was that 'no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.' US District Court Judge John Gleeson rejected that defense in July 2010, ruling that naming the product 'vitaminwater' and its flavors 'energy,' 'revive,' and 'defense' has 'the potential to reinforce a consumer's mistaken belief that the product is composed of only vitamins and water,' and largely denied Coca-Cola's motion to dismiss the case. Plaintiffs, including a mother who fed the product to her 4-year-old daughter based on the balanced-breakfast messaging, sued after discovering each serving contained 21 grams of sugar, 200 calories, and 11 grams of fat (3.5 grams saturated). Ferrero settled the resulting class action for $3 million in 2012, agreeing to pay consumers $4 per jar (up to 5 jars each), remove the 'balanced breakfast' phrase from the back label entirely, replace it with 'Turn a balanced breakfast into a tasty one,' and submit future commercials for plaintiff approval before airing.
SHORT ANSWER
Vitaminwater: Coca-Cola's own legal defense against a 2009 lawsuit over vitaminwater's health claims argued that no reasonable consumer should have believed the product was healthy in the first place -- and a federal judge ruled the product's own naming and flavor names could still mislead people into thinking it was.
Nutella: Ferrero paid $3 million in 2012 to settle a class-action lawsuit and removed the phrase 'balanced breakfast' from Nutella's labeling after plaintiffs pointed out a single serving carries 21 grams of sugar, 200 calories, and 11 grams of fat.