Inbox
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
what is worse than having a long-running scam on a well-known product being exposed?
having a long-running scam on a well-known product being exposed by 14 year old schoolgirls!
in this case this is Ribena of GlaxoSmithKline. News article here from CNA.
below is a condensed version of the full article.
==
School experiment sinks Ribena in court
The makers of Ribena pleaded guilty Tuesday to misleading the New Zealand public about the drink's health benefits after being exposed by two teenage girls in a school science experiment.
GlaxoSmithKline's embarrassment stemmed from a school science project done by Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo, now 17, at an Auckland high school three years ago.
The multinational firm was fined 217,500 dollars (US$156,100) in the Auckland District Court for breaching fair trading laws with claims about the vitamin C content of the popular blackcurrant drink.
It was also ordered to run advertisements detailing the true contents of the drink sold in 20 countries worldwide.
Earlier the company admitted in court that its cartoned ready to drink Ribena had no detectable Vitamin C, despite claims it contained seven milligrams of the vitamin per 100 millilitres.
The company also admitted it may have misled customers in advertisements saying the blackcurrants in Ribena syrup had four times the vitamin C of oranges.
==
sorry to break your hope kids, but Ribena contains no Vitamin C at all, much less four times of it than those present in oranges.
cant wait to see how the correction advertisement of theirs will be like.
having a long-running scam on a well-known product being exposed by 14 year old schoolgirls!
in this case this is Ribena of GlaxoSmithKline. News article here from CNA.
below is a condensed version of the full article.
==
School experiment sinks Ribena in court
The makers of Ribena pleaded guilty Tuesday to misleading the New Zealand public about the drink's health benefits after being exposed by two teenage girls in a school science experiment.
GlaxoSmithKline's embarrassment stemmed from a school science project done by Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo, now 17, at an Auckland high school three years ago.
The multinational firm was fined 217,500 dollars (US$156,100) in the Auckland District Court for breaching fair trading laws with claims about the vitamin C content of the popular blackcurrant drink.
It was also ordered to run advertisements detailing the true contents of the drink sold in 20 countries worldwide.
Earlier the company admitted in court that its cartoned ready to drink Ribena had no detectable Vitamin C, despite claims it contained seven milligrams of the vitamin per 100 millilitres.
The company also admitted it may have misled customers in advertisements saying the blackcurrants in Ribena syrup had four times the vitamin C of oranges.
==
sorry to break your hope kids, but Ribena contains no Vitamin C at all, much less four times of it than those present in oranges.
cant wait to see how the correction advertisement of theirs will be like.
