kraft heinz: Benefit by taking advertising literally

No one in this country seems to take advertisements for their word. Everyone seems to be fine not holding marketing divisions of companies accountable for what their products are supposed to deliver according to their own claims. Well, in the land of milk and honey and mac’n’cheese, some people do things differently. A woman has sued food company Kraft Heinz for $5 million for false advertising.

The product in question – microwavable mac(aroni) and cheese – was supposed to be ready for consumption in 3.5 minutes according to the product description. The complainant said it took more than 3.5 minutes for her to tear the packaging and have it meal-ready. According to her, 3.5 minutes is the time it takes for the mac and cheese ‘to be cooked’, thereby making the advertised duration the time it takes for ‘just one of the steps’ to get the food ready.

In Priyadarshan‘s iconic 2000 film, Hera Pheri, Baburao Ganpatrao Apte (Paresh Rawal) avails of such a loophole and gets a free pizza (bit.ly/3AT5l4t). The deal: if the pizza was not delivered in 30 minutes, it would be free. The delivery agent did reach in 20 minutes, but Babu Bhaiya kept eluding him for the next 21 minutes, breaching the contract. In America, a free meal won’t do when a $5 million lawsuit can. It’s time we, too, take ads literally. It could hold us in better stead.