A Florida woman is suing Hershey because its Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins aren't as cute as they appear on the wrapper

ZeroCool@slrpnk.net to Not The Onion@lemmy.world – 300 points –
A Florida woman is suing Hershey because its Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins aren't as cute as they appear on the wrapper
businessinsider.com
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On the surface this might sound silly but after looking at the chocolate it's straight up false advertisement. They know people will buy it specifically because of the way it looks. It's bait and switch.

Yeah, this isn't like a fast food burger that isn't quite as elegantly stacked as it appears on a tv commercial or something. This is clearly advertising a candy with a jack-o-lantern shaped cutout in the chocolate while selling you something different. It makes for a silly headline that's perfect for this community, but if she wants to sue them over it I'm gonna side with her on this one.

It's deceptive and corporations shouldn't be allowed to get away with crap like this. Because if we let them get away with this little lie they won’t stop there. They will only get bolder and more egregious.

And shame on business insider to down play it as someone complaining they're not 'cute' enough.

Honestly, I feel her. I opened one of these in my child's Halloween candy bag and felt misled.

Last time I saw this someone mentioned the football ones. They are basically the same shape as the eggs for Easter, but show the lines on a football in the packaging.

We call those "eggballs" for that reason. Gotta hand it to Hershey for finding a second use for that pattern like that.

look, if they’re charging $4.50, I had better get something better than a turd when I open the package. put a squiggle on it and make it look like a football or whatever.

just sayin'

The way the headline is worded makes me think it’s trying to spark outrage and debate against the woman suing.

But also boy did I learn my lesson about not judging Joe Shmoe vs Corporate after learning more about the McDonald’s hot coffee case.

I’m gonna withhold judgement and see where this ends up!

The McDonald's lady required skin grafts. This woman suffered mild disappointment. There is no possible comparison between the two cases. False advertising? Yes. Refer to FTC for penalties. Harm suffered? Virtually zero. This is a frivolous lawsuit and waste of any court's time.

It's a class action lawsuit. It represents the rights of an entire group, even if it's only a single person bringing forward the suit. It's not about the harm done to a single person.

If a thief steals one dollar from a thousand people, you could say "oh, that person only lost a dollar" or you could say "that thief stole a thousand dollars". The harm suffered to each individual was minimal, but harm was suffered, and if you add it all up, a lot of harm was done. That's not frivolous.

Yes, I read the court filing. The only problem is that the collective value of the suffering caused by this particular false advertising would be worth about a dollar fifty. The only people who win from this kind of lawsuit are the lawyers.

I would not be making fun of this suit if it was about Hershey's lead and cadmium problem:

https://www.consumerreports.org/media-room/press-releases/2023/10/consumer-reports-urges-hersheys-to-get-heavy-metals-out-of-chocolate-products/

Americans will sue over everything and anything

I think that’s what the headline is trying to get you to say. And we had the same reaction with the McDonald’s case. But I hope we’re getting a bit wiser that when the story is spun this way it’s not too far out there to think that the corporation could have employed a media consultant to help spin this as “Americans sue over everything this case is dumb” when in reality there might be a good case under there that it’s easy to dismiss or ignore.

I suspect that’s the low hanging spin for corporations who are being held accountable. “Don’t sue us, that’s dumb! Look how dumb she’s being. Entitled! Money grab!”

I totally agree with the notion that the article is meant to illicit that thinking as well as it being false advertising, but at the same time this particular case doesn't have quite the same impact as the McDonald's Coffee case. Nobody is physically being harmed by the candy not having a face. What could be deeper than simply the disappointment of not seeing that little jack-o'-lantern face when you unwrap the peanut butter cup?

Do you want companies to follow the law or not? Why even have truth in advertising laws if no one is going to enforce them?

They're fixing this. Next Halloween these will be known as Reese's Peanut Butter Blobs.

They need to label it more clearly. The thing in the package is what the jack o' lantern pooped out.

I'd never noticed. They go into my mouth hole so fast that I can't say I've looked at the actual design.

She should win, it might seem dumb, but she thought of it first

The lawsuit also takes issue with the Reese's Peanut Butter Footballs, which have carved out laces on their packaging, but instead "look like an egg" when viewing the actual product.

LACES OUT, DAN!

I missed my chance to sue because I had a Pepsi in the 80-90s and I wasn't dancing like a maniac afterwards.

The Peanut Butter Pumpkins also don't have bites taken out of them, is she suing for that part too, or just the faces not being carved in? Because if she reasonably assumed that they didn't have bites taken out of them, then she probably could've assumed that the graphics on the wrapper weren't 100% accurate as to what the contents looked like.

Good God. Just imagine this incredibly brave Karen's mental anguish when she bit into this delicious but uncute treat and could not immediately unload her bottomless rage on the nearest assistant manager.

The horror. The horror.

Why even let massive corporations get away with false advertising? If they show the pumpkin have a face on the cover, they better have a face on the actual thing. You're just decenticized to being fucked around by corporations that you're defending them for lying to you.

I don't care if she wins a billion dollars. Hershey's can go bankrupt tomorrow. I just know what actual problems look like and a fucking candy wrapper ain't one of them.

The world is allowed to have more than one problem solved at once.

Based on the number of downvotes I'm getting, I'm apparently supposed to empathize with a woman with the time and financial resources to finance a frivolous candy lawsuit instead of reporting it to the FTC .

Here's a little preview of how badly she will have her ass handed to her in court, and this case arguably does involve harm to consumers: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/04/business/wendys-mcdonalds-false-advertising-lawsuit/index.html