Red Bull does NOT give you wings, $13.5m lawsuit says so A website set up by Red Bull to allow its caffeine guzzling consumers to stake a claim to a multi-million dollar award for failing to get the wings its ad slogan promised, crashed under the weight of interest. The Austria-based drinks maker is to settle US lawsuits out of court, brought by a long-time user, Benjamin Careathers …
Sadly my scepticism at piss poor reporting would like to give this gentleman the benefit of the doubt and suggest he may have been remarking on the general tone of Red Bulls advertising which often suggests it will improve your athleticism which most people would find laughable but has an underlying message that this is some kind of sports drink and by consuming it you will improve your performance.
On the other hand who would be stupid enough to believe anything you read or hear on the news let alone in an advert.
I just hope Red Bull gives him the cancer he deserves, and to his ambulance-chasing lawyers and all the other leeches too.
but has an underlying message that this is some kind of sports drink and by consuming it you will improve your performance
I have never seen anyone drink Red Bull to improve his "athletic performance" unless 48h gaming marathons and alcohol-fuelled night club autotorture counts for this.
But then again, I'm generally living in Europe. $DEITY knows what Murricans believe.
This American, actually, citizen of the United States of America, as I don't desire to offer guilt by association of the same continent to Mexico and Canada, of our idiocy think that he's seen even more energy drinks used in network operation centers.
After all, it's a well established fact of nature that networks to not actually operate by electrons, they operate by caffeine. Network performance is logarithmically related to the caffeine consumption of the engineering staff, hence my network security operations center has its own Starbucks machine and K-cup machines (I use a better brand of coffee, as I rather despise Starbucks rubbish).
The simple reality of it is, in the US, anyone can sue over damned near anything whatsoever. It can be a weighty matter, but most frequently, it's a frivolous legal action that costs more to defend against than simply paying out a few million.
Many years ago, I was on a jury in a civil case. A widow was continuing the legal action on behalf of her decedent husband, who had died of lung cancer.
He was a three pack a day smoker, the jury was selected with quite a few smokers, including myself.
After a week of testimony, with suppression of emphysema being excluded because one physician called it the more generic COPD in his report, his chest x-rays were presented. Yeah, it was emphysema, secondary to smoking.
But of course, several women in the jury wanted to take care of the widow and one waitress insisted that the product companies that were claimed to have caused his lung cancer knew about the risk of their product causing cancer 150 years ago.
The product was asbestos.
So, I told a very, very nasty story about the sexual exploits of soldiers on leave, which drove the jury to find quickly, just to depart.
So, the final settlement was $5 million dollars, with 60000 for the husband and the rest for his widow.
When unofficially polled as to why that number was tendered, I explained how I arrived at the number that the jury, erm, accepted. I figured it was less than you were being paid to defend this case.
One attorney for the defense broke into open laughter and agreed.
Meanwhile, the widow's attorney received 40%, with the attorney getting 60%.
That was a long, lousy pay week. Didn't make enough in jury pay to cover the trolley (tram for you, as I recall) and lunch. Fortunately, the company I worked for made up the difference between the laughable insult of jury duty pay and my true pay. That was good, as I made more per hour than the jury pay was for an entire day by a great deal.
It definitely makes you more intelligent ... if you are silly enough to drink that shit, you can only improve, intelligence-wise.
Seriously, though, caffeine will increase the performance of your heart, and your brain will get more oxygen as well as nutrients, so only the brain dead will not notice a difference, Same goes for athletic performance.
As for Lynx/Axe ... all it takes to be attractive to women is confidence ... so they are right as well.
Now, the wings is a metaphor - if you cannot use those in advertising without USians getting upset, shit!!! ... I think I start to understand why Japanese cars in France have the mention:
"Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" - if you do not know that, you must have failed your test and should not be allowed to drive/ride anything (including bicycles) on roads.
It goes to the whole "Truth in Advertising" business. The thing is, what one would perceive as ridiculous, another would consider factual (like the time someone managed to amass enough Pepsi Points coupons to afford, according to the promotional ad, a Harrier jet—the case was thrown out, BTW). That's why I don't like ad laws as they are and would prefer them to be restricted to absolute truth, or as close to it as possible (I would equate it as a case before the public and subject to the same restrictions as a court witness: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth). For example, absolutely no hyperbole or unverifiable claims and all advertised effects listed in their most conservative. Preferably, all testimonials should be voluntary and unpaid, and though I cannot think of the exact means, some way should be made to force professional endorsements to have serious backing.
quote: "It goes to the whole "Truth in Advertising" business."
Unless and until this is also applied to campaign promises, Red Bull can claim their caffeinated pisswater will let you shoot lasers from your eyes and be able to call forth the power of 10 tigers for all I care.
"Truth in Political Campaign Advertising" is a far more pressing matter IMO.
Probably not, the actual complaint seems to be that it doesn't metaphorically 'give you wings' any more than anything else with caffeine in it. rather than the fact it doesn't literally give you wings.
The suit says:
“Even though there is a lack of genuine scientific support for a claim that Red Bull branded energy drinks provide any more benefit to a consumer than a cup of coffee, the Red Bull defendants persistently and pervasively market their product as a superior source of ‘energy’ worthy of a premium price over a cup of coffee or other sources of caffeine.”
Seriously stupid that this was allowed to go to court and that the Taurine guzzling muppet was suprised that he didn't develope the ablitity to fly. It must be said however that increase in mental ability clearly in this case would have been a benefit.
See
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Everyone-who-drinks-red-bull-is-drinking-bull-jizz/133176643423259?_fb_noscript=1
for why there is going to be a sudden increase in lifestock explosions if they stop milking the bulls
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2nd para - "The Austria-based drinks maker is to settle US lawsuits out of court..."
I was going to say that people should've known better, but I reckon they did and are just exploiting the false claims Red Bull made in their advertisement. In this case I don't really imagine anyone took them seriously but if we want all companies to stop making false/misleading adverts then Red Bull are fair game.
In response to the Coca Cola 'Share a Coke' campaign, Barr decided to produce thousands of limited edition 750ml bottles of Irn-Bru with the names 'Fanny', 'Senga', 'Rab' and 'Tam' on the label, mimicking that by Coca Cola. The use of the name 'Fanny' ties in with one of Irn-Bru's controversial marketing advertisements.[11]
I did not know this! Genius. Makes me homesick.
> we want all companies to stop making false/misleading adverts then Red Bull are fair game
Have you even seen the false adverts for Obamacare? It's practically along the lines of "Be a crack whore, have fun. You will get a free liver thrown in later".
But then again, it's not a company, so I guess it's all-ok.
This is the USofA we are talking about. You know the place where people have their lawyers on Speed-dial and sue everyone and everthing at the drop of a hat.
"Hey, that was my hat you dropped'
"Don't worry, there was no damage. It is just a wollen bobble hat."
"I'm going to sue you for a $1M in damages for the distress you have caused me and my hat."
USA The place where they not only shoot first but then they fire off lawsuits at the victims for causing the incident in the first place.
When I lived in the US I got sued twice
Once for putting my trash out at 22:00 the night before it was to be collected at 06:00. The law said 'no trash on the sidewalk except on the day of collection'.
The second was from the guy who ran into the back of me 'for being stopped on a freeway'. I was in a queue waiting for a police roadblock to be cleared.
We moved back to the UK to get away from a totally bonkers society.
Most people in the USA do not file insane lawsuits, like the fact Red Bull doesn't "give you wings". It's called common sense, and some Americans do not have it. I'm from the great country that is the United States of America. Some people like cash grabs, but most Americans do not sue people for crazy reasons. Lawyers are not on speed-dial for most Americans, and I don't have a lawyer on speed-dial myself. America is full of people who do not file insane lawsuits, but some Americans do.
I think anyone with an IQ bigger than their shoe size would be aware of the lack of wing inducing properties in any energy drink like Red Bull.
What Red Bull should be wary of is the clubbing fraternity who often comsume energy drinks with vodka and an Ecstasy (or similar drug) chaser, every can of Red Bull sold in a disco club should come with a free defibrillation kit some of the medics I have spoken with, who have treated people in a state of collapse after that particular cocktail have told me they often have heart rates that would kill a person who was straight.
I quite like the caffeine hit from energy drinks but that fake cherry? taste is disgusting.
Excellent choice of words - Unlimited*
* except where limited by ...
Much as I agree the case is largely stupid, advertising regularly works in the grey space between truth and lies, and we need the occasional case like this to keep the advertisers feet on the ground
I don't think he was literally thinking it'd make him grow wings (I sure as hell hope not). But the ads kind of vaguely implied that you would get faster, stronger, and smarter when you drink it (rather than just being more awake and alert.) If you're some kind of numpty. But, this is the US, where they have a few car ads where the car is like parkouring off the sides of buildings and shit, and jumps on top of a moving train, with the disclaimer "This is not real. Don't drive on top of moving trains."
On the other hand, advertisers here seem to get away with a hell of a lot compared to in Britain. Just off the top of my head. The cable *and* DSL companies locally both LOVE to list "Just $x a month for y months", while not giving even a hint of what the cost will be when those y months are up, even in the fine print. A local cellphone carrier that has regional coverage of like 10% 3.6mbps HSPA 3G and 90% EDGE 2G advertises their "nationwide 4G network". A prepaid cellular co advertising cell phone "unlimited data" then terminating your service at just 2GB (they price it so it's a very good price for unlimited and poor price for 2GB.)
The false advertising over unlimited cellular is bad enough that one company has ads where someone's signing up for "unlimited" service with someone else and is like "What's that!?!" and points at a guy in a big asterisk-suit. "Oh, that's the dumb ass-terisk. The plans unlimited, but if you go over a limit there are.... consequences." (Then the asterisk kicks the customer in the nuts for presumably going over their limit.) They then point out their unlimited is truly unlimited.
There's even been a case or two where the company owner was arrested and thrown in jail for deceptive advertising -- BUT NOT ORDERED TO PULL THE ADS, SO THEY DIDN'T (so they kept having money come in by duping people while in prison.)
At no point does the lawsuit even mention that they were expecting to grow wings. This was purely a tabloid addition. Reg I was expecting better. Stop emulating the daily mail and consider presenting facts sometimes. The lawsuit is actually interesting and argues that the beverage provides no more advantages than normal coffee.
"Reg I was expecting better. Stop emulating the daily mail and consider presenting facts sometimes."
Hey, it pulled you to the article. Tabloid headlines are like that for a purpose: human nature draws us to extremes. It's called "sensationalism." The mundane "Red Bull Sued for False Advertising" simply wouldn't draw as many clicks.
"This is like suing "The Neverending Story" because it ended !!"
No its not. "The Neverending Story" is the name of a film about a neverending story. Following that line of reasoning would mean that Terminator 2 would have had a pretty small audience and T3 would have been a mop up operation.
Jon
Upon first encountering their ad promo 'gives you wings', I naturally assumed it was a metaphor or idiom suggesting you would feel soaring and full of energy. I did not expect wings, partly because the claim is so ridiculous that no one over the age of 2 or 3 would believe it.
Far greater need for 'truth in advertising', is for all the burger and fast food ads to include the disclaimer:
No, your food will never look like the picture
So how much did the lawyers get? The figures suggest about $7 million. I wouldn't be surprised if the suit was their idea and they then went on a short hunt for someone willing to play the part of the wronged idiot.
In the UK, we have a system where defendants can be made offers, such that if they win, but fail to win more than was offered, they're liable for all legals costs after the offer. I doubt such cases would get so expensive in the UK. I am not a lawyer.
I was playing Billiard against a bloke once. It was a 'beer game' - the loser bought a round.
Now, I had a meeting in the morning, so no way am I going fo have more than one the night before.
So, I opted for RedBull instead.
This fuc*ker wouldn't ever win, nor would he let me stop playing until he won one game. After 6 games (and 6 rounds), I was getting bored, he was getting pitifully drunk, and in my desire to walk home, I 'accidentally' ptted the black.
Got home, suddenly the Red Bull hit me! Had to lie on the floor with feet on the sofah, really thought I was about to have a heart attack. Lasted an hour (cell phone had no power, else I'd have called 112)
In neighbouring Sweden, there were a couple of deaths from mixing vodka and RB. Several times in one session...So I guess the advert. is true in that case...
In neighbouring Sweden, there were a couple of deaths from mixing vodka and RB.
That's not correct. Some people, who died, were thought to have consumed vodka mixed with Red Bull some time beforehand. Meanwhile, a causal link between the events wasn't established, and the drink remains on sale in Sweden.
That was 13 years ago. If it was truly a danger, given the sheer amount of the stuff that has been consumed since then, we'd know by now.
Maybe not Red Bull, but in the US there have been some cases where a caffeine/alcohol combination was at least partially to blame for a number of deaths: mostly from the consumption of Jagerbombs or those tall cans of alcohol+caffeine like Four Loko. They knew it was a factor because the conflicting buzzes meant the body couldn't warn the drinker they were overdoing it. Hard to deal with the Jagerbombs since they're mixed on site, but they basically told the Four Loko and the like to ease up on the caffeine so that drinkers can at least get some kind of warning buzz.
Red Bull sells over five billion cans a year. (5.387 B in 2013.)
1.4 million people get ten bucks.
So that's 0.2% of people who bought a can in the last year. And this lawsuit covers twelve years.
I think Red Bull can shake this money out of the couch cushions and not even notice.
While i'm no fan of BigCorp's, i'm even less of morons like this and legal systems that actually support them.
Any decent place and the moron would have been sent to mental care given he espoused the belief that he could get wings by drinking red bull. Only to be released if/when he proved capable of making the distinction between reality and fairy tales. And his legal counsel would be disbared for actually taking up the case and (eventually) wasting the court's time.
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I bought a promotional Halloween pack of Cadbury Mini Rolls the other day, which said on the front: "Individually wrapped... by vampires". How is that OK and this isn't?
If this was America it wouldn't be OK. You would be able to sue Cadburys for 65 million dollars (purely because it is a figure that I plucked out of my arse) that you bought that product in good faith because you believed that you were helping minorities who were employed by Cadbury to wrap these things. Only to find out that they are produced by a machine on a conveyor belt with little or no input human or vampire and the crazy thing is you would probably win a healthy figure from them out of court. Most of the megabucks will have gone to a tireless team of lawyers who put together this compelling and unjust case on your behalf, but you'd still be left with a tidy amount to keep you in condo payments for a year or three.
It is literally the most morally bankrupt and brain dead country in the world where everything has to be wrapped in cotton wool because people are so obsessed with the compensation culture. The last three clowns in the White House have been able to afford massive amounts of money to spend on foreign influence and wars yet more and more of their population are going hungry and without shelter and yet they call it the greatest country in the world. You've gotta laugh
A real shame - I don't like the product, but I have a great deal of respect for what the company does with it's advertising dollars. They put out a hell of a lot of amazing content and the branding in the videos is not in your face - in fact you often have to look quite hard to see someone consuming their product in their videos.
Plenty of the world's top extreme sport athletes have been helped to get the exposure they deserve by RB, including our very own and insanely talented Danny Macaskill.
TL:DR - If ever there were a company whose advertising I approve of, it is RB.
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