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The winners!
Companies spend much time telling you about the various awards they have won. Well, here is one set of awards that you are not going to hear them talk about! The World’s Worst Products 2007 was awarded by Consumers International (CI), the inter
national federation of consumer organisations, during the recently concluded 18th International Congress in Sydney, Australia. The theme of the meeting was ‘Holding Corporations to Account’ and the ‘World’s Worst Product Awards 2007’ were given to companies who had excelled in corporate abuse, hypocrisy and irresponsibility.
CI categorised the nominees into four product categories – Bad Food, Bad Drink, Bad Toy and Bad Medicine, based on the impact on consumers. The award for Bad Toys went to Mattel, which recalled over 21 million toys from around the world in 2007, due to design faults and the use of poisonous levels of lead paint. The recall included one toy that contained over 200 times the amount of lead permitted by U.S. law. Mattel was awarded the Bad Toy Award for 2007 for ‘compromising consumer safety, blame dodging and finger pointing’.
The award for Bad Drink went to Coca Cola for their international bottled water – Dasani. In 2004, Coca-Cola was forced to take Dasani, off the U.K. shelves after a public outcry because it contained nothing more than tap water. As a result it has never made it to German or French shops, though it is sold in the U.S. and several Latin American countries. The Bad Food Award for 2007 was given to cereal producer Kellogg’s for marketing unhealthy and junk food to children. CI’s award is in recognition of Kellogg’s ability to make money by selling products high in fat, sugar and/or salt. Examples from around the world of Kellogg’s contribution to our children’s diets include products with high percentage (35 per cent – 45 per cent) of sugar, when food containing 20 per cent sugar is deemed as ‘high’ in sugar content by many leading nutritionists. The winner of the Bad Medicine Award was a Japanese drug manufacturer Takeda Pharmaceuticals for advertising a sleeping drug Rozerem for children. The advertisement was released at the beginning of the school year and suggested that parents seek out the sleeping drug for their children – to help them get through the stress of school opening. The advertisement ran without noting the very serious side effects that this drug can have, including increased thoughts of suicide in already depressed patients.
The announcement of these awards underscores an important role that consumers need to play today – demanding that businesses become more socially and ethically responsible. (The writer works with CAG, which offers free Advice on Consumer Complaints to its members. For details write to cag.helpdesk@gmail.com)
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