Just Mayo Lawsuit Analysis
A lawsuit filed October. 31 2014 in the U.S District Court in New Jersey has a lot of people in the consumer world talking. The Makers of Hellmann’s and Best Food brands of Mayonnaise, is accusing Hampton Creek Inc. of falsely advertising for calling its eggless spread, ‘mayo’. The corporate giant is demanding Hampton Creek change its labels of its Just Mayo products (which is currently an egg with a plant growing over it). Founded three years ago, Hampton Creek uses yellow peas instead of eggs in its spread. It has great support from the people buying Just Mayo, to back up its new innovative way of consuming egg free products in sustainable simple ways. In less than a year, Just Mayo has landed on shelf space in major retailers, such as Whole
…show more content…
Foods Market Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores inc. raising over 30$ million from big time investors such as Bill Gates, who truly believe in the company. This is great news for those of us, who are demanding foods be more natural based and organically produced. Simpler ingredients that are not just better for our health, but for animal welfare and the environment both in which desperately need our help. Can I get a hoorah, for healthy living?!
Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist society where we are plagued by not only what to consume but also, how much we consume on a regular basis.
This being the case, it is easy to see big corporations who don’t deal with competition to backlash at the thought of another rival product that would come in any harm to their production value and economic growth. It is important to note however, this lawsuit only marks the latest on going battles between established food companies and the ever growing natural- and organic-food producers, that envision a cleaner future. Big named companies claim they are for cleaner eating, but this lawsuit is one of many that help outline, what we truly are consuming and what the consequences are. Again I can’t stress it enough, there's no surprise that this lawsuit came about. When a company is threatened they will fight at any costs to protect their revenue costs. More so when they haven’t had any real competition to worry about in decades. That’s exactly what Just Mayo is, the first real competition that giants like Hellmann’s and Best Foods has to deal with. Although it is hard to prove the quantified harm that has been done to the sales of companies like Hellmann’s, we can see they will try to metaphorically ‘smoke out’ the competition moreover, they will stop at nothing to try to protect their ideal company
view.
I truly believe in companies like Hampton Creek Inc. only show us how detrimental our food choices are to us. The world cannot survive if we do not start changing our ways. Petitions have taken off recently to help fight against big corporate giants who ‘pick’ on the little guy. One in particular on Change.org has had more then 12,000 supports in a very short period of time and it is great to see. We cannot change the world alone, but we can be the voice that starts the revolution a Food revolution in this case, with the uprise on Vegan and Vegetarianism more and more companies like Hampton Creek, are coming up with protein and meat replacers at an increasing rate to keep up with consumer demand. This is why there is an uprise in lawsuits on those up and coming companies.
To put it in the words of Craig Martin (2012) “ The basic idea of social constructionism is that we, as humans, make the world what it is for us. The world is not just there for us to find and discover- rather, we make the world what it is through our use of language”(Martin, 2012, p. 21). That is to say, when companies file lawsuits over the uses of labels or names, it relates back to the significance of words in the human language. If I was to tell you that and apple was named dirt, it may not hold the same appeal as it once did. This analogy can be applied to the term Mayo. Mayonnaise instantly comes up in the consumer’s mind. It is a word that can easily be identified as a food related item, that is used for things such as sandwiches or as a sauce- thickener. We then associate the word Mayo within our own vocabulary as food item. If we were to call it perhaps Ceramic, we may not as easily identify it as an item of food. Reasons such as the one above, is why Hellmanns and, Best Food can file lawsuits against companies like Hampton Creek, our capitalist society relies on trademarked names to protect their brands from being outsold by other companies. Although, Hellmanns and Best Foods have not yet trademarked the name “Mayonnaise” a lot of consumers would identify these brands with the term mayonnaise, causing a stir when new products are marketed.
Foods Market Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores inc. raising over 30$ million from big time investors such as Bill Gates, who truly believe in the company. This is great news for those of us, who are demanding foods be more natural based and organically produced. Simpler ingredients that are not just better for our health, but for animal welfare and the environment both in which desperately need our help. Can I get a hoorah, for healthy living?!
Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist society where we are plagued by not only what to consume but also, how much we consume on a regular basis.
This being the case, it is easy to see big corporations who don’t deal with competition to backlash at the thought of another rival product that would come in any harm to their production value and economic growth. It is important to note however, this lawsuit only marks the latest on going battles between established food companies and the ever growing natural- and organic-food producers, that envision a cleaner future. Big named companies claim they are for cleaner eating, but this lawsuit is one of many that help outline, what we truly are consuming and what the consequences are. Again I can’t stress it enough, there's no surprise that this lawsuit came about. When a company is threatened they will fight at any costs to protect their revenue costs. More so when they haven’t had any real competition to worry about in decades. That’s exactly what Just Mayo is, the first real competition that giants like Hellmann’s and Best Foods has to deal with. Although it is hard to prove the quantified harm that has been done to the sales of companies like Hellmann’s, we can see they will try to metaphorically ‘smoke out’ the competition moreover, they will stop at nothing to try to protect their ideal company
view.
I truly believe in companies like Hampton Creek Inc. only show us how detrimental our food choices are to us. The world cannot survive if we do not start changing our ways. Petitions have taken off recently to help fight against big corporate giants who ‘pick’ on the little guy. One in particular on Change.org has had more then 12,000 supports in a very short period of time and it is great to see. We cannot change the world alone, but we can be the voice that starts the revolution a Food revolution in this case, with the uprise on Vegan and Vegetarianism more and more companies like Hampton Creek, are coming up with protein and meat replacers at an increasing rate to keep up with consumer demand. This is why there is an uprise in lawsuits on those up and coming companies.
To put it in the words of Craig Martin (2012) “ The basic idea of social constructionism is that we, as humans, make the world what it is for us. The world is not just there for us to find and discover- rather, we make the world what it is through our use of language”(Martin, 2012, p. 21). That is to say, when companies file lawsuits over the uses of labels or names, it relates back to the significance of words in the human language. If I was to tell you that and apple was named dirt, it may not hold the same appeal as it once did. This analogy can be applied to the term Mayo. Mayonnaise instantly comes up in the consumer’s mind. It is a word that can easily be identified as a food related item, that is used for things such as sandwiches or as a sauce- thickener. We then associate the word Mayo within our own vocabulary as food item. If we were to call it perhaps Ceramic, we may not as easily identify it as an item of food. Reasons such as the one above, is why Hellmanns and, Best Food can file lawsuits against companies like Hampton Creek, our capitalist society relies on trademarked names to protect their brands from being outsold by other companies. Although, Hellmanns and Best Foods have not yet trademarked the name “Mayonnaise” a lot of consumers would identify these brands with the term mayonnaise, causing a stir when new products are marketed.