A federal judge ruled last Friday that New
York-based yogurt maker Chobani must cease running ads claiming Dannon’s light Greek
yogurt contains chlorine and is not safe to eat.
According to the New York Post, Dannon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Chobani
after it launched ads attacking Dannon Light and Fit. The ads claim Chobani
Simply 100 is the only 100-calorie Greek yogurt with zero preservatives.
One of the Chobani commercials is described as showing a young woman lounging by
a pool chair and reaching for a cup of Dannon yogurt. A voiceover states, “Dannon
Light & Fit Greek actually uses artificial sweeteners like sucralose.
Sucralose? Why? That stuff has chlorine added to it!” The voiceover concludes, “Now, there’s
Chobani Simply 100. It’s the only 100-calorie light yogurt sweetened
naturally.”
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge David Hurd concluded that
Chobani "is free to continue to spread its message about the value of
selecting natural ingredients," but may not disseminate
false messages, including that Dannon's or General Mills's products are unsafe
because they contain the sweetener sucralose and the preservative potassium
sorbate, according to website mediapost.com.
Sucralose and potassium sorbate are generally recognized as safe by U.S. food regulators. Judge Hurd also wrote that "the balance of record evidence reflects that sucralose is an unusually well-studied compound repeatedly determined to be safe for ordinary consumption.”
Per mediapost.com, Hurd reasoned that courts "regularly recognize that even where 'no combination of words' found in the advertisement is untrue, the message conveyed by the advertisement may still be 'literally false' if its clear meaning, considered in context, is false.”
Chobani, for its part, sued Dannon in US District Court in Albany over the attempt to block its advertising. Chobani Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Peter McGuinness told AdAge, "This is not a marketing campaign, it's a mindset campaign, and it outlines the difference between using only natural ingredients versus artificial ingredients.”
Chobani later declared via twitter, “The
conversation about how food is made in our country is just beginning.”
