Ribena has been found to have no detectable Vitamin C by 2 New Zealand school girls and they have been fined for misleading advertisements. Please be wary, paying more money for a brand doesn't mean you will get a better product.....you can be easly misled, especially when there is no one to check on it.
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Ribena caught out by schoolgirls
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/27/ribena.fine.ap/index.html
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Global drugs company GlaxoSmithKline was fined 217,000 New Zealand dollars ($156,000) for misleading advertising Tuesday after two science students found its iconic blackcurrant drink Ribena contained no detectable vitamin C.
The multinational company admitted to 15 charges of misleading advertising between 2002 and 2006 in a suit filed by the Commerce Commission, a consumer watchdog, after a 2004 school science project exposed the false claims.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Global drugs company GlaxoSmithKline was fined 217,000 New Zealand dollars ($156,000) for misleading advertising Tuesday after two science students found its iconic blackcurrant drink Ribena contained no detectable vitamin C.
The multinational company admitted to 15 charges of misleading advertising between 2002 and 2006 in a suit filed by the Commerce Commission, a consumer watchdog, after a 2004 school science project exposed the false claims.
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Ribena has long been sold as a healthy drink based on advertisements that blackcurrant juice has more vitamin C than orange juice. Its New Zealand advertisements claimed Ready to Drink Ribena had 7 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 milliliters (0.25 ounce per 3.4 fluid ounces).
But high school students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo, then 14, found the product on sale in their country contained almost no trace of vitamin C after testing the children's syrup-based drink as part of a science project in 2004.
Ribena has long been sold as a healthy drink based on advertisements that blackcurrant juice has more vitamin C than orange juice. Its New Zealand advertisements claimed Ready to Drink Ribena had 7 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 milliliters (0.25 ounce per 3.4 fluid ounces).
But high school students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo, then 14, found the product on sale in their country contained almost no trace of vitamin C after testing the children's syrup-based drink as part of a science project in 2004.
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Auckland District Court Judge Phil Gittos fined GlaxoSmithKline and ordered it to run corrective advertisements, in addition to a message on its Web site.
The girls were in court to hear the verdict.
Auckland District Court Judge Phil Gittos fined GlaxoSmithKline and ordered it to run corrective advertisements, in addition to a message on its Web site.
The girls were in court to hear the verdict.
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"We feel quite proud ... blown away," Devathasan told National Radio. "If we hadn't done that science test three years ago, Ribena could have been promoted as vitamin C full forever."
It was "remarkable nobody had even picked it up ... and we just stumbled on it by chance," she said, adding that she thought the fine should have been more because GlaxoSmithKline was a multibillion dollar company.
"We feel quite proud ... blown away," Devathasan told National Radio. "If we hadn't done that science test three years ago, Ribena could have been promoted as vitamin C full forever."
It was "remarkable nobody had even picked it up ... and we just stumbled on it by chance," she said, adding that she thought the fine should have been more because GlaxoSmithKline was a multibillion dollar company.
7 comments:
Wow, really interesting. So does that mean the Singaporean papers can be charged with falsly letting the public believe that Singapore really is a 'free democratic country'? Wonder what the fine amount would be? Ribena gets fined $217,000 for 4 years of lying to the public. What will the gov't be fined with lying to the people about their 'freedom and democratic style' for 40 years? That must be why they have the billions in surplus, so when the fine does strike the ministers dont have to give up their million dollar salaries.
Don't worry about the Singapore govt. We have no 15 yr school kids who knows what Democracy is and hence there is no one with time to measure the actual amount of democracy in our island.
i not so concern Vitamine C got no boost. i concern Vitamine A also empty of boost.
report say,got Vitamine A also useless no can go into Oxford because so common so over flooded.
hmm...maybe need Vitamine P?
Many Singapore think alike, they think grades are life and death. In fact people end up looking at life narrowly exams, grades, scholarhip, bond, GPA etc.
Who cares about Oxford, MIT, ..? Except for 5-6 Feymann..., the typical MIT graduate is also no big deal.
The most important skill to to sieze and make the most of your opportunities....and it is easy to beat Singaporeans in this aspect because they are generally passive instruction followers.
I would go for Vitamin O...opportunities.
i've been punk'd......this apply to all the ribena over the world?
It is terrible, just terrible, to pay for something that is more than it is worth. Absolutely terrible and it is even worse if all the false advertising was deliberate and part of a scam all along.
goes to show.. dont believe advertisements.. theyre mostly full of crap anyway.
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