Awards for Bad Products Equals Spin

What do you get when you combine misleading advertising with sleeping pills? — the Consumers International list of bad product awards. The U.S. subsidiary of the Japanese firm Takeda Pharmaceuticals took the cake for their promotion of a sleeping drug, Rozerem, to children, according to AFP article posted on Yahoo! News.

Consumer International, a global consumer group, announces the awards at the Consumers International World Congress in Sydney. Recipients were chosen from submissions by consumer organizations across the globe.

Another notable recipient was Coca-Cola for its marketing of Dasani water despite the notion that it shares its origin with local tap water, and U.S. toymaker Mattel also found a spot on the list for its recent lead-based toy issues.  All the finger pointing that led to China taking the blame, rather than Mattel, gave the company this not-so-honorable award.

In my view, there are a few key points here. If you want your company to receive an award for having a bad product, and you want to be associated with spin — follow a few simple steps.

·         Avoid accountability for your mistakes and let the blame fall elsewhere

·         Market a potentially harmful product to small children using commercials

·         Portray your product as something that it clearly is not

It’s a miracle the list doesn’t go on forever… – Angela Loiacono