Mead Johnson, Maker of Enfamil, Loses Multi-Million Dollar False Advertising Case Against Store-Bran
This is a sponsored guest post written by a Press Release on behalf of PBM Products. Post powered by Sponzai.
GORDONSVILLE, VA., December 2 , 2009—PBM Products, LLC, a leading infant formula company that supplies store-brand infant formulas to Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target, Kroger, Walgreens, and other retailers, has received a favorable jury verdict and a $13.5 million damages award in its false advertising lawsuit against Mead Johnson & Co., the operating subsidiary of Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE: MJN) (“Mead Johnson”), the makers of the national-brand Enfamil® LIPIL® Infant Formula. Mead Johnson is 83 percent-owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
PBM’s lawsuit claimed that Mead Johnson engaged in false and misleading campaigns against PBM’s competing store-brand of infant formulas, suggesting they do not provide the same nutrition as Mead Johnson’s brands. PBM’s store-brand infant formulas cost up to 50 percent less than Enfamil® LIPIL®. The $13.5 million in damages awarded by the jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of the largest damages awards ever for a false advertising case.
“This decision by a jury of the people confirms that Mead Johnson’s ads have been false in suggesting that there is a nutritional difference between our store-brand formula products and their products, when in fact the only major difference is price,” said PBM CEO Paul B. Manning. “Despite Mead Johnson’s scare tactics, parents are assured that PBM’s formula products are as high quality and nutritious as Mead Johnson’s.”
U.S. District Court Judge James R. Spencer issued his written rulings yesterday following the November 10th jury verdict. Judge Spencer’s written rulings permanently enjoined Mead Johnson from making any false statements concerning PBM’s infant formula, including the claims Mead Johnson previously made in Enfamil advertising that "It may be tempting to try a less expensive store brand, but only Enfamil LIPIL is clinically proven to improve brain and eye development," and "there are plenty of other ways to save on baby expenses without cutting back on nutrition." The Court also ordered Mead Johnson to retrieve from the public domain all advertising or promotional materials containing these or any other false claims about PBM’s store brand infant formula.
The details of the decision and the complaint are posted online in full at:
· http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/Order_Laches.pdf
· http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/PBM_Complaint_MJ_III_LIPIL.pdf
The nutritional supplements under examination in the case are two fats, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid), which Mead Johnson calls “LIPIL®” solely for marketing purposes and touts as promoting infant brain and eye development. PBM’s claim focused on Mead Johnson’s direct mailing to more than 1.6 million parents of an alarming blurry picture of a child’s cartoon duck next to a clear picture of the same image which suggested that anything other than the Enfamil LIPIL® blend of ingredients is inferior and will result in poor eye and brain development. Other parts of the false advertising campaign consist of statements that only Enfamil LIPIL has been proven to confer visual and mental benefits on infants, and store-brand formulas are a “cut-back in nutrition” compared to Enfamil.
PBM successfully argued that these advertisements were false and misleading especially since PBM store- brand infant formulas have the same nutrients at the same levels as Enfamil. PBM infant formulas are formulated to contain DHA and ARA, and are sourced from the same supplier in amounts which equal or exceed the DHA and ARA in Mead Johnson’s Enfamil LIPIL®.
This decision marks the third time PBM Products has sued Mead Johnson for false advertising claims. On the prior occasions Mead Johnson admitted that it made false claims about PBM’s products. It is also the first false advertising case to focus on the issue of DHA and ARA nutritional ingredients in formula, which were introduced into the market in 2003 and have become a staple in recent years by many brands as key components for infant development.
“This jury verdict should send a significant and clear message to Mead Johnson about the way it conducts marketing and advertising for its brands,” said Manning. “This lawsuit also demonstrates our complete commitment to defending our products and the valuable brands of our retail partners.”
“As a parent and supporter of children’s medical research, I take a personal responsibility in assuring our customers that the products we produce are healthy and nutritionally equivalent to brand names like Enfamil® LIPIL®. It is important, especially now, for parents to know that there are lower priced yet highly nutritious store-brand formulas that will provide the same benefit to their children as any national brand name formula product,” Manning added.
The U.S. infant formula market is estimated at $3.4 billion and the global market is estimated at $7.9 billion.
All of PBM’s formulas, and for that matter all of U.S. infant formulas, are subject to the exacting standards of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pursuant to the Infant Formula Act of 1980. This legislation vested FDA with the authority to ensure that all infant formula products sold in the United States provide the necessary levels of identified nutrients required for the growth of healthy babies. For more information, visit this FDA link.
PBM Products was represented by the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP. Partners from the firm’s advertising practice, Harold P. Weinberger and Jonathan M. Wagner in New York, led the team.
About PBM
PBM is privately owned and based in Gordonsville, VA. PBM companies specialize in manufacturing, distributing, and marketing consumer food, nutritional, and pharmaceutical products. For more information, visit www.pbmproducts.com.
Enfamil® LIPIL® are registered trademarks of Mead Johnson & Co.
Visa Card? Why Not?
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Exhaustive Online Slots Gamblers
Clever and exhaustive casino players will produce more than them who play the games just according to the lucky star. Players must know when to stir the slots and when they must stop to aim for the jackpots. They will try to analyze the slots and learn the basic winning rules for at least to keep their fund from losing. There they can keep playing and set off the other strategies to beat the slots. Casinos give chance to get yummy amount of money and players must seek their fortune there by themselves.
It’s hardly to get good hit from reaching the hot perfect reels for winning combination. Pay lines and coins at casinos must be played in maximum limit to aim fully amount of jackpot winning combination. If you haven’t pay the whole pay lines and fortunately hit the bang of combination, there more money had came to you. That’s the main rule of living in the gambling world. The richest player commonly is the one who takes the highest risk and put the high bets. But that’s also supported by good planning and accurate calculation. By that you will keep your luck in winning and make up the minor loses in gambling now stop talking let get online casinos for real money!!
America and Europe Roulette
Roulette is an interesting game in casinos. But somehow, it’s not a profitable game if we play from online casino. Online casino had set of the wheel pins perfectly that it’s hardly to gain money from roulette and more losing instead but you will win BIG if you are lucky enough. There are several online roulette that you may find in online casino. The small is characteristic of the varieties roulette even though American version comes out with the highest casinos edge. Roulette is not well known in America but it’s quite famous in Europe casinos. An Europe casino offer low House Edge better than American’s. The reason is that the wheels only consist of 37 slots.
The game will be played by first setting chips on the table in the correspondent boxes. That works either on the number directly or marked boxes which are surrounding the table. Chips used are commonly marked by 2 ways. One of them is denomination which usually as low as $1 and the other one is identified by colors. The game’s winner and losers are determined by a spinning ball which put by the dealer to the slotted wheel. Certain rule of playing roulette is there isn’t second chance to imprison your bet so analyze well before putting your bets. Remember that we are gambling and always have chance of winning!
Possibilities of Gambling
Gambling is a life style that can’t be blow down. Possibilities to get more money without put any afford are a radical motivation for people to move the wheel of gambling world. The fact taken place inside this probably never occurs in people’s mind. Possibilities of winning the gambling games are 2 wins and 8 lose or 1 win and 9 loses. It does never exceed than 3 wins in 10 times. If there is, it’s really meant that the players’ lucky star is shining at that time.
Casinos are the center various gambling games. Probably there are many people who intend to play in a casino. The amount of people can be more than we expected. But just few of them can make it through. The reason is gambling needs certain amount of fund which only few of people could provide. And players must set off their minds to except the possibility of losing their money. Each internet casino has different of minimum fund. The average amount is among $1000 to $3000. But several of the casinos have below or up than that amount.
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Profitable Online Casino
Playing online casino isn’t an easy-taking gambling case. You have to fulfill several common conditions as the requirements. The player must be above 18 years old. In addition, for full-time students who are 21 years old or below must not enter the online casino and no exception for them who are enrolled in Universities or colleges. The players must not play under professional purposes. The online casino must be used only for private use. Players have to verify terms and condition to place their bets on gambling. Players have to require their full and update personal data, including contactable phone number. The players’ account will be closed in return for the fraudulent information and other certain rules.
We ought to get profit from playing internet casino if we win the bonuses. The cash-out and bonuses will be kept confidential and stored in high level security. The above information will not be given to the third parties except under law, governmental or regulation authority. We suggest you to use credit card as media payments or transactions. Most of casinos had supported by high secure technology which can ensure that personal data is transferred over the internet securely. If we are surely able to accomplish and agree with the requirements and conditions then we may play online casino.
Family Matters
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Family Matters is an American comedy sitcom of an all African American family, middle classed everyday family living in Chicago. The show was a spin off of Perfect Strangers which Family matters aired from September 22nd 1989 to May 9th 1997 which was aired ABC. Then Family Matters was moved on September 19th 1997 to CBS which aired it until July 17th 1998. Now you can find the complete series of Family Matters on DVD 4 Play, no excuses missing out on watching this favorite sitcom of yours. You can play the complete Dvd series of Family Matters any time you wish to, without any interruptions in the comfort of your home or over at a friends house.
Family Matters aired 215 episodes and was the 2nd longest United States Sitcom with a cast of All African Americans, which surpassed The Jeffersons which was another famous American comedy sitcom. What made Family Matters so hot and funny was when Steve Urkel played by Jaleel White was introduced midway through the first season which became the focus of the sitcom. Who could not laugh when Steve Urkel entered centre stage with his big glasses and short hiked up pants above his waist? That voice oh that voice only he could carry that high pitch voice and is god awful laugh. If you do not remember him then dvd 4 play has the complete series for you to remember him clearly.
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Priorities Bring Focus to the Family Budget
For many families the household budget can be an intense source of familial conflict. Not everyone always agrees with how the money should be spent or how it should be managed. More often then not the rest of the family reluctantly defers to whoever brings home the most pay when it comes to financial decision making, but many times this can cause resentment towards that person.
Money is an important part of any family’s life and many times family peace and cohesiveness are threatened by the lack of a sound financial plan that has little or no direction. By including everyone in the decision making process and setting a list of priorities and goals that everyone agrees on you can bring peace and harmony to the family money situation.
Here are four steps to bringing peace to your family budget:
1. Set Priorities – Priorities and goals are not necessarily the same thing. These are things in your family’s life that you want to focus on in the long term. This could be anything from purchasing a new home, college savings, or any other long term financial plan. The goals you set in step 2 are specific targets you need to hit in order to bring your priorities to fruition.
Do not set to many priorities. No more than 2 or 3 at the time. Remember these are long term plans that will have a positive impact on your family’s life. As you and your family set your priorities write them down and keep them conspicuous. This will give your entire family the focus they need to meet these plans.
2. List Your Goals- Once your priorities are set you can start listing the goals that will support the priorities. Goals are specific and measurable conditions that are met in such a way that they bring you closer to fulfilling your priorities.
When you set a goal it should be a target that is achievable with a sound financial plan that starts with the family budget. A goal can be paying off a certain debt in a certain amount of time or saving a set sum of money in a year’s time. If you set one to two goals per priority you will find yourself staying focused on the task at hand.
3. Meet Your Goals – Once you have set your priorities and goals it is time to start working towards them. The first step is the implementation of the family budget. This will allow you to track the family money, both income and expenses. It can be as simple as writing it down in a notebook or you can buy personal accounting software that helps you manage your family finances. Which ever method you use it is imperative that you track your family’s money with a budget.
4. Periodic Evaluations – From time to time check to see how you are progressing towards your goals and priorities. This is something the whole family can do together. As you check off goals met it will give you and your family member a certain feeling of satisfaction. As you meet your goals and then your priorities re-evaluate your current situation and set new ones that can be met.
Family And Child Development
The main engine of development of a child is the accumulation of human values from the family. Human values broadly defined, has several aspects, including love, respect for elders, kindness, co-operation, honesty, politeness, patriotism, sympathy and empathy are considered to be a key determinant of developed personality. The personality of a man is depended upon the family in which he lives which is portrayed in a family tree. Better formation from the family generates the child’s mental growth and there by benefits the society.
“Education which does not teach us to discriminate between good or bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the other is a misnomer,” said Mahatma Gandhi. The purpose of education is not only to make our children literate and merely develop individual skills but to make them appropriate human beings with positive and integrated elements of their respective societies. Thus such values as punctuality, cleanliness, respect for elders, helping the less fortunate, team work and discipline, give the socially integrated citizens a better place to live on this earth. We know the process of social integration begins in the family. Researchers observe a positive relation between family and society. As family is the cradle of social life, we can say that good social beings come from good families. A person’s character, skill and social awareness are determined by the family which he or she lives. The training from the family should be a means drawing out the best of the body, mind and spirit in a child. The experience in the family should be joyous to the child. Then only the child can develop a positive attitude towards society. On the other hand a child who experiences any kind of hardships from the family has a chance to develop negative attitude towards him and society, which may end up his or her life as anti-social or unscrupulous. Here the role of family to bring up the child in the proper channel can in no way be under looked.
Milton in his ‘Paradise Regained’ has said, “The childhood shows the man as morning shows the day”. Wordsworth expresses the same fact though less poetically but more cryptically when he says “child is father of the man”. Both the poets positively assert that childhood lend itself to prediction that tomorrows man is there in today’s child just as the future tree is there in today’s seed, invisible to the naked eye. If the skills and capabilities in the child be properly channelized we witness great personalities – genealogy – who challenge the dynamic world. The lives of much great man illustrate this point of view. Napoleon had built forts of snow as a child, Nelson as a child never knew what fear meant, Macau lay talked printed words even as a child of two years. These people and many such kept up their childhood promises and became great men in later life. We can undoubtedly say that such personalities will derive only from a better home-environment where family values and traditions are practiced. Family tree sites like generationdb.com help to keep track of our own family history and genealogy.
But we also see a number of boys and girls who score brilliant ranks in schools and colleges and show great promise, but soon vanish in the wilderness of shapeless future. Nobody knows what had happened to them except perhaps their own near and dear ones. Like drops of rain that falls on desert sand they disappear. The complexities of life, the problems that face them perhaps overwhelm them. Their facilities disintegrate by degrees and they move to obscurity. They are the people who need guidance. Better home-environment would keep their inner light burning.
The mind of a child is something like a piece of wax which can be easily fashioned into any shape we want, the only thing is, and it needs the skilled hand of a master artist. The virgin mind that is not ravaged by the complexities of life is ready to receive; whatever is planted will grow; thorns or flowers; gardens or grasslands. Give it to a Jijibai or Moropanth. The world will witness ‘Sivajis’ and ‘Lakshmibahais’ give it a Dhritarshtra, the world will be plagued with Duryodhanas and Dussasanas.
This brings out the importance of the family-environment that shapes the mind of a growing child. A happy home as seen on a family tree created on generationdb.com with loving parents will definitely contribute the healthy growth, while a suffocating atmosphere in the family might crush the fair promises. The fast disintegrating family life, as a result of pseudo-civilization which has rung a death knell to many time tested values is at the root of the crisis of character and growing unrest all over the world. In short the role of parents in a child’s overall development is definitely a crucial one. We have lots of tips for taking it further. Don’t criticize or compare the child with others, encourage the child in any of his or her creativity, praise the child in success, provide honest answers to the child, be patient to the child, parents should try to build a genuine relationship with the child, try to understand the feelings of the child, share the happiness and sorrows, satisfy the child’s social and psychological needs and we will witness challenging personalities.
Family Photo Gifts: Memories for the whole family
Family photos are perfect for showcasing the occasions of happiness that a family goes through over the years. Most families preserve these photos in albums, but the process has been done to death already. Families nowadays prefer to carry the memories with them wherever they go, whatever they do. The best way to help them to do this is by giving them family photo gifts made with photos of those happy moments that the family members have enjoyed over the years.
If you want to make your gifts to the family members really special, the first thing that you will have to do will be to get some photos of the happy moments the family has lived through. Once you have those photos, there are many ways of transforming those photos into gifts that would last a lifetime. Here are some great ideas for doing that:
Digital photo frames – Forget regular photo frames; no matter how unique these may look, it is a highly overused idea now. Go for digital photo frames instead for a unique choice. Digital photo frames have memory sticks built into those that can hold up to 1,000 photos. Personalize the cover of the frame with a family photo, and you have made a gift that is unique and stylish at the same time. This is one gift that the family will cherish for years. Photo lockets – Lockets or pendants with photos of family members mounted into those are great gift items that are appreciated by most people. Simply collect some small-sized, candid family photos and have lockets or pendants made with those photos. This will make a highly personalized, unique gift item that family members will love to wear. T-shirts – Customized t-shirts with family photos printed on those are great gifts. These are great for any occasion, and most family members will proudly wear these to the college or a day out with friends. Calendars – Family photos make great additions to calendars. Get 12 family photos centered on occasions that are special to everyone in the family. Get a personalized calendar made out of those, having one photo for each month. This would make an excellent gift that the family members can use throughout the year.
Family gifts are hard to choose, because you have to find something that quite a few people would like. But, when chosen carefully, these gifts are cherished by family members for years to come, thereby preserving golden memories for future generations.