TOILET BRUSH THAT WARNS, “DO NOT USE FOR PERSONAL HYGIENE” WINS TOP PRIZE IN M-LAW’S EIGHTH ANNUAL WACKY WARNING LABEL CONTEST
A flushable toilet brush that warns users, “Do not use for personal hygiene” has been identified as the nation’s wackiest warning label in an annual contest sponsored by a consumer watchdog group.
The Wacky Warning Label Contest, now in it’s eighth year, is conducted by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch, M-LAW, to reveal how lawsuits, and concern about lawsuits, have created a need for common sense warnings on products.
Winners were chosen from hundreds of labels
Over the past twelve months, M-LAW has received hundreds of labels –- all from products made by American manufacturers -- from people living in many different countries. The winning labels were selected by listeners of the Dick Purtan morning show on Detroit radio station, WOMC-FM from a list of finalists selected by M-LAW. The toilet brush label was found by Ed Gyetvai, of Oldcastle, Ontario. He receives $500 and a copy of the national bestselling book, “The Death of Common Sense,” by Philip K. Howard.
OTHER WINNERS.
The $250 second place award went to Matt Johnson of Naperville, Illinois for a label on a popular scooter for children that warns: “This product moves when used.”
Third place and $100 went to Ann Marie Taylor of Camden, South Carolina who found the following warning on a digital thermometer that can be used to take a person’s temperature several different ways: “Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally.”
Fourth place was a label on an electric hand blender promoted for use in “blending, whipping, chopping and dicing,” that warns: “Never remove food or other items from the blades while the product is operating.” Sent in by Ken Stein of Berkeley, California.
In fifth place was a label on a nine- by three-inch bag of air used as packing material. It carries this warning: “Do not use this product as a toy, pillow, or flotation device.”Sent in by Christen Millard of Westerville, Ohio.
“Warning labels are a sign of our lawsuit-plagued times,” said Robert B. Dorigo Jones, M-LAW president. “From the moment we raise our head in the morning off pillows that bear those famous ‘Do Not Remove’ warnings, to when we drop back in bed at night, we are overwhelmed with warnings. Plaintiff’s lawyers who file the lawsuits that prompt these warnings argue they are making us safer, but the warnings have become so long that few of us read them anymore-- even the ones we should read. Hopefully, M-LAW’s Wacky Warning Label Contest will motivate everyone to read their warnings again, and maybe even motivate judges to get tougher on frivolous lawsuits.”
