HERSHEY, Pa. (CBS) – A Florida woman is upset about the lack of designs on Reese’s holiday-themed peanut butter candy - and now she’s taking parent company Hershey to court over it.
Cynthia Kelly filed a federal class-action lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida, alleging several Reese’s products don’t match their photos as depicted on the wrappers.
For example, Reese’s peanut butter pumpkins are merely pumpkin-shaped hunks of peanut-butter-stuffed chocolate, and the actual product has no Jack O’lantern-style carvings as the wrapper depicts, Kelly alleges.
Okay, I agree it is “common sense” that advertisements are not usually indicative of reality. But it is only “common sense” because we have a culture where people are allowed to sell products using misleading advertising.
Honestly, I think advertisements as they exist in our culture mainly prey on our evolutionary biases. They exploit our drives that were originally designed to help us survive. The fact they are misleading is the point, in order to increase profits. Frankly, I don’t think advertisements as they exist today are ethical at all, and I’d root for any party that wants to push to change that culture.
At what point would you draw the line of acceptability? Is it fine to advertise a fluffy loaf of delicious sourdough, and the product is a literal brick of hard tack? Is it fine to advertise a pair of denim jeans and receive polyester jeggings?
This is especially true when you must pay for the product before examining its contents. Sure, if your mesh bag of oranges at the store doesn’t look like the label, maybe you’re right that you should be fine with whatever you get, given that you can look at the product before purchasing. But what if you spent money buying a bespoke gift box of heirloom oranges as a present for a family member and they got a taped together amazon box with some green and half rotten oranges it in?
The promise of quality is part of the product. We could improve people’s lives substantially by requiring realitistic advertising. It’s learned helplessness to just accept the shit-cake because “well, you were stupid for expecting better”.
I do agree, especially the point that today’s advertising is unethical. I try to avoid marketing, and I shop based on unit price and never the photo on the box.
Current consumer laws do protect against certain forms of bad business practice.
If you’re sold apples, you shouldn’t be getting oranges. You should also have the expectation that what you are purchasing actually works and isn’t defective.
But so much of marketing portrays ideals or intangibles, so it’s hard to have laws protecting against it.
You buy hair color, expecting that it will make you beautiful, but that’s not reality. A lot goes into hair styling, and even the color you chose has to match your face, and your face has to be decent if you expect to look “beautiful”.
In marketing, products are all designed to make you stronger, more beautiful, faster, jump higher, “look cool”, be desirable to the opposite sex, be better in bed, have pro-level skills, etc. This is partly why ads can be so harmful to mental health: you are always inadequate unless you have their product.
At the end of the day, my advice to anyone is to avoid any and all forms of ads and marketing (if possible), and to be skeptical of what the package says/shows. Use a stores refund policy whenever you received something you weren’t expecting, and spend money based on your needs and not imaginary ideals.