Last week federal courts ruled that Mead Johnson, maker of Enfamil, had to pay $13.5 million in damages as a result of a lawsuit claiming that their baby formula had better benefits then private label brands. Adage and The American Lawyer both covered the story from different angles, but both articles underscored the impact of the case – this award is one of the largest to date for a false advertising claim.
First I would like to say, as a mother, that false communications about the health of my children, of any child, is not OK. It’s never OK. Trying to lead a parent to believe that your child may be unhealthy because a white label brand does not offer the same health benefits, when the products are in every way identical, is just wrong. I am glad Mead Johnson got stuck with the huge claim against them. I hope executive heads roll, and I hope that Saatchi & Saatchi, the newly hired agency to handle U.S. marketing of Enfamil, learns a hard lesson from Mead Johnson’s penalties.
According to the article by Rupal Parekh in the December 2, issue of AdAge:
“Mead Johnson’s ads have been false in suggesting that there is a nutritional difference between our store-brand formula products and their products, when in fact the only major difference is price,” PBM’s CEO, Paul Manning, said in a statement. “This jury verdict should send a significant and clear message to Mead Johnson about the way it conducts marketing and advertising for its brands.”
I understand that in this economy, every brand, every service, every company, every person, is fighting with all their might to gain ground with their brand when resources are scarce. But when parents are falsely told to choose between the health of their child or saving funds that may already be scare, a grievous act of harm has been done. Mean Johnson should have relied on other messaging tactics to maintain their brand as top of mind and preferred by customers. As it stands, the general public will probably mistrust the company for years to come. I hope this blog posting ads to that mistrust.
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