The pomegranate doesn't fall very far from the tree

[Simon Says]

POM Wonderful is a drink product using pomengranate made by POM Wonderful LLC, a privately owned company, founded by Lyndae Resnick and her husband, and, as we know, Ms Resnick is associated with Teleflora.

I, and maybe others, have opinions regarding deceptive imagery and statements associated with those images as promoted by TF, and, in fairness, others in the WS system.

I see that POM Wonderful is challenged by the US Food & Drug Admin (FDA) for practices regarding claims they make in the marketing, promotion and branding of the PON Wonderful pomegranate drink. (POM Wonderful refuted FDA statement).

http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2010/ucm202785.htm

(I hope the above link works).

In fairness, the challenge does not necessarily disprove the statements but that the statements are not necessarily proven and that the labelling does not comply with regulations, which,be they fair or not, other companies are supposed to comply with.

Labels which do not comply with regulations and/or have not been legally assessed but still marketed as promoting something which might is deceptive. While not on the same level - insomuch as we are not encountering human health issues - imagery that suggests to sections of the public one thing regarding a floral arrangement but which is not necessarily so in practice, make me wonder how far that proverbial apple does fall from the tree.

 

[Flowermomma]

the date at the end of that is 03/10 and i looked at the website quoted and i would say they have made some changes.

 

[anytimeflowers]

So, like Jenny Craig, each image should be marked "Results are not typical". lol

 

[Doug Munro]

There's also an ugly rumor floating around that Lyndae Resnick may have falsified her age when she was 12 to gain access to a PG13 movie! Maybe someone on this board could investigate that and start a thread, that in itself should be good for a couple of hundred postings. lol

 

[Simon Says]

Melissa,

Here is another link:

http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticl...onderful_Fights_Coke_While_the_FTC_Fights_Pom

In short, the issue has not been resolved. POM Wonderful is suing the FDA over the FDAs requirement upon POM Wonderful.

Meanwhile, POM Wonderful has been going after various makers of "pomegranate" juice for mis-leading the public on grounds different to the one the FDA is pursuing against POM Wonderful. POM Wonderful is generally, in the opinion of the courts, not being successful in their cases.

What is clear is that POM Wonderful - and arguably others that peddle fruit juices - are selling things with images and text that the small print does not support (or is not substantiated by authorities). To me, this is deceptive and I do wonder how far that apple falls - FIJI Water anyone and the dilemmas, some ethical, that part of association throws up.

 

[lori042499]

Just had to giggle about the tag line on this post..I knew it had to be about the resnicks..Good one!!

 

[CHR]

There's also an ugly rumor floating around that Lyndae Resnick may have falsified her age when she was 12 to gain access to a PG13 movie!

Doug -

This issue is not some trivial matter.... Have you read the complaint filed by the FTC against the Resnick's? It's quite lengthy and outlines a pattern where POM funded medical studies and either puffed up claims beyond clinically acceptable results (claiming cancer prevention, cure for erectile dysfunction, improvement in prostate cancer test scores), or buried findings when the data didn't provide the results which they'd hoped to find. The company continued to market health claims (largely unfounded per the FTC and FDA) after being warned by numerous state and federal agencies.


There's a blow-by-blow list of accusations in the FTC complaint (PDF) - and some of them are pretty shocking, if true.

The trial began last week and is expected to last 3-4 months.

 

[Simon Says]

Thank you Cathy for that FTC complaint link. I had been looking for it but could not find it and relied on other info of a possibly and potentially less @@@@ing nature.

The issues regarding FIJI Water, whilst not US based, point to other ethnical issues which, in full fairness, are debatable and revolve about matters of the environment, support of a military regime (in Fiji) and tax avoidance (again in Fiji).to name but 3 aspects. However, the very fact that they are debated issues with, amongst other things, coverage on the Internet, the global media and in governmental bodies does make one stop and ponder, how far do those pomegranates fall from that tree?