Guest post: Eight out of ten cats prefer
Originally a comment by tigger_the_wing on Meet “truthful hyperbole”.
All sorts of advertising slogans from my childhood fell foul of accuracy laws.
The one which changed the most (long past the point, in my opinion, that it should have simply been abandoned) was Whiskas cat food. “Eight out of ten cats prefer Whiskas!” became, eventually “In tests, eight out of ten owners who expressed a preference said that their cats preferred Whiskas!” Not exactly snappy, eh?
EU laws are very protective of consumers. Subway have fallen foul of them quite recently, when they lost their case to continue to call their rolls ‘bread’. They contain too much sugar – they are officially cake.
I wonder if they’ll ever come down on European estate agents, landlords, and the like, for the exaggerations and blatant lies they tell.
I knew those couple of law subjects I did way back when would someday be useful! May I cite Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1892], which 1) would be a good band name and 2) established the dictum that Thou Shalt Not Bullshit Unduly in Advertising. The only other legal case I remember is the one about not sticking snails in ginger beer bottles, but that’s not important right now.
Thank you, Gordon, that is hilarious!
(Now you have me curious about the snails)
Here you go, tigger. A rollicking tale. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. It will change your life: Donoghue v Stevenson [1932].
Gordon, that is an amazing tale.
Especially as told in the usually dry tone of the Law Teacher site.
http://www.lawteacher.net/cases/donoghue-v-stevenson.php