Really a Deceptive Ad?

Deceptive advertising.  It is a term, I'm sure, many people are plenty familiar with.  The FTC places regulation and ethic codes on advertising that restrict companies to what they are able to say in advertsing.  An example mentioned in class the other day by my Advertising professor was the Sketchers lawsuit.  Sketchers shoes has been sued for saying that their "tone-up" shoes were not clinically proven to be an effective tool to building muscle.  The lawsuit settled for over $40 million.  Another lawsuit some might not be as familiar with was the Nutella lawsuit claim made by California mom who had been feeding her kids Nutella consistantly, because she believed it was part of a healty breakfast.  Kind of shocking, right?  I mean who really could believe that Nutella, a chocolate spread, is part of a healthy breakfast for kids?  Apparently this woman did, and she took her claim to court against the company Ferrero, the makers of Nutella.  In the court documents she said that advertisement made claims that Nutella was "healthy" an "part of a balanced meal."  Let me show you this ad first, you have to check it out......

Alright, so at no point did this commercial specifically say that Nutella was healthy, or part of a balanced meal so you might think this crazy woman who has been feeding her kids chocolate, and getting them fat has no basis for a claim.  Well, as it turned out she wom the claim.  In fact, she settled on a $3 million.  Wouldn't that be nice.  Honestly, I think this is rediculous.  Sure the ad said that her kids "love" eating Nutella for breakfast and that her kids "want to eat it."  What kid wouldn't want their mom to be preparing toast with chocolate for breakfast.  Yes, the ad did say at the end that "breakfast never tasted this good."  Big shocker there, huh?  I could Skittles, and Oreo's for breakfast and it would taste good too.  But, if you aren't skeptical at the appearance of Nutella being healthy, you can always read the nutritional facts that say that per 2 table-spoon serving there are 21 grams of fat and 200 calories.  But if I'm in Vegas right now, I am putting my money on the fact this woman neglected to do anything of the sort.  Either way, Athena Hohenberg, the mom of the century, won herself $3 million and Nutella has cancelled running this ad, as well as changing their nutritional labels, so this mistake (I guess you call it) doesn't happen again.  In my opinion, no chance this was deceptive advertising, but it just shows how careful companies need to be before running an ad.

Source:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/04/26/151454929/nutella-maker-may-settle-deceptive-ad-lawsuit-for-3-million