John Stossel’s ‘Wackiest Warning Labels’ Are All Very Dumb

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by Frances Martel | 4:55 pm, June 18th, 2011

» 12 comments

John Stossel‘s war on unnecessary rules knows no bounds– take, for example, last night’s segment on dumb warning labels, an attempt to highlight the silliest things companies have to warn consumers from in order to avoid litigation. Stossel welcomed the head of the second annual Wackiest Warning Label contest to make fun of pen caps, bicycles, and costume capes that warn of brutally obvious dangers.

Stossel had several demonstrations to exhibit the hair-raising dangers that some of these household items present, including a “drive and talk speaker” that warned “do not use while driving” and a costume cape that reminded the user “cape does not allow the user to fly.” Then he got to the finalists, as a kid rode into the studio on a bicycle. “Wait, that’s dangerous!” Stossel yelled, asking the kid if he was a “trained professional.” “No, I’m a kid!” said the kid. According to the bicycles instructions, only trained professionals could be allowed to use it. Stossel also demonstrated in a “dry” jacuzzi how “water attracts children,” which could lead to drowning.

The winner of the contest– a breathing mask that warns it “does not supply oxygen”– received $1,000, while the runner-up, the bicycle warning, took home half as much.

The segment via Fox Business below:

Fox Business, John Stossel, Stossel, stupid warning labels

tatboy

Gawd bless trial lawyers, liberals, and Dems, for bringing us this reality.
felixw

Stossel’s goal is NOT to “make fun of pen caps, bicycles, and costume capes that warn of brutally obvious dangers.” He is showing the results of the Democrat’s slavish devotion to trial lawyers (the largest donors to the Democrat party).

Billions of dollars in costs are imposed on the economy, so that trial lawyers can get rich — and then they tithe 10% to Obama, Pelosi and Reid, who pass more laws to spur more litigation. And the vicious circle perpetuates itself, over and over again….

Or at least until the Republican take charge after 2012 and clean up this mess with real tort reform.
timzank

Shakespeare was right.
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All lawyers are SOBs…except mine.
http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

The segment was almost entertaining, if one were completely bored, but the most laughable part was how the guest and Stossel went to such extremes to fit the labels and factoids into their narrative.

Off the top of my head…

The Girl Scouts sells lots of cookies to pay their insurance provider, not to pay off lawsuits. There’s no mention of how many times Girl Scouts are sued and under what grounds. He gives the impression that they’re insured in regards to cookie sales, but Girl Scouts do camping, field trips, fire-making horseback riding and lots of other activities. I’ve personally been involved with Girl Scouts for many years, three councils and two states. I’ve can’t think of any publicized suits against Girl Scouts and if there is a problem, I’d say that it’s because insurance is bought at the Council level.

The standard disclaimer in a photo ad isn’t a product warning label and all the “probablys” in regards to the gas mask makes me think the manufacturer put it on their own without cause.

As for the hot tub, if you actually look at the child portion of the warning, it could be as much toward protecting the buyer from a potential suit. Of course, the company is shielded because they provided the warning and sold the tub with a cover, but the need to put the cover on between uses is the personal responsibility of the buyer and if one were to fail at the task, they’re the ones who get sued. After all, the company isn’t responsible for the care and maintenance of every tub.
http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

ETA: One of my favorite parts of “Consumer Reports” magazine is the “Selling It” feature, where they highlight weird warning labels, misleading ads and product packaging, etc. The difference between the Consumer Reports feature and the Stossel segment is that while education is a key, they’re also doing it for the humor and not to prove some big political point.

For a taste of the CR feature, I’ve dialed the link back to June because it has a super-wordy warning label. Also, I’m not finding a tag to access other editions, so you’ll need to toggle the month in the URL or use the site’s search function, if anyone would like more.
BatBoy

I liked Stossel’s story a couple of weeks ago where someone in NY got a grant to give away bicycle helmets.

That got the people to line in at the Government give-away!

And you libs wonder why we don’t want one more dollar going to Washington – it is because they spend it on their pet projects and friends.
donalan

Democrats are BAD Rpublicans are GOOD

…yawn…
Yoda002

BatBoy said:
I liked Stossel’s story a couple of weeks ago where someone in NY got a grant to give away bicycle helmets.

That got the people to line in at the Government give-away!

And you libs wonder why we don’t want one more dollar going to Washington – it is because they spend it on their pet projects and friends.

Hey, they’re giving away money to the oil industry too.
BatBoy

Yoda002 said:
Hey, they’re giving away money to the oil industry too.

They give away money to everyone….how about we stop all of it.
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