0.2: Faceless Food Fight
THIS WEEK: We go to court over faceless (and delicious) pumpkins, check in on Jimmy Kimmel and Aaron Rodgers, and a giant Crypto Egg. Also, say hello to our new career hub.
Faceless Food Fight
Picture this. You’ve just finished billing a grueling 0.4 hours, and you’re famished. You stumble out of your office and into a convenience store where you see a cute little pumpkin Reeses face staring back at you from the shelves. Sold.
You unwrap the packaging and to your horror and astonishment, there’s a faceless chocolate/peanut butter candy staring back at you. Do you, a reasonable consumer, feel deceived?
That’s what a Florida court will be asked to decide in a new class action lawsuit filed against Hershey. The complaint alleges that a group of consumers purchased Reeses Peanut Butter Pumpkins because of the “cute looking” face carvings featured on the packaging – but the candy itself features no such carvings.
The allegations don’t just stop at the pumpkins; ghosts, bats, and footballs are all on the chopping block. In short, the plaintiffs allege that the Reeses’ advertisements are “materially misleading and numerous consumers have been tricked and misled by the pictures on the Products’ packaging.”
This case joins a litany of food advertisement-related class actions including larger-than-life whoppers at Burger King, Taco Bell’s allegedly understuffed Mexican pizzas, and the battle over whether strawberry Pop-Tart’s are strawberry enough.
Food false advertising claims seem to be on the menu.
Let’s Take This Podcast Outside
Looking for a celebrity feud to kick off the new year? We present. . . Jimmy Kimmel vs. Aaron Rodgers?
In his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, the controversial New York Jets quarterback insinuated that Jimmy Kimmel may be on the since-released list of Epstein associates (which Kimmel wasn’t on). “There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, really hoping that doesn’t come out.”
Kimmel didn’t take kindly to the allegation and fired back on X: “Dear Asshole: for the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any ‘list’ other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality. Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court.”
Kimmel and Rodgers have some history. Last year, Kimmel referred to Rodgers as a “tin foil hatter” for his comments on the Epstein list and UFOs. In fairness, Rodgers does have a reputation for being kind of out there (see e.g. ayahuasca trip and darkness retreat).
Pat McAfee has since issued a semi-apology for his part in the controversy: “I can see exactly why Jimmy Kimmel felt the way he felt, especially with his position. But I think Aaron was just trying to talk shit.” No word from Rodgers or ESPN at the time of this writing.
There are several other additional angles here – Rodgers has a deal with ESPN and has been paid over a million dollars by ESPN for his McAfee Show appearances, Kimmel is an ABC employee (ABC and ESPN are affiliated). We’ll see if this fizzles out, but it could be a combustible situation.
Joke Break
A Cracked Crypto Egg
Keeping the egg puns to a minimum for this one. Long and short is this: famous internet personality Logan Paul got caught up in a crypto scheme/video game similar to Pokemon. Did the game get created? Nope. As you’d expect, a class action was filed against Paul.
So instead of dealing with this rotten egg, Paul is offering an omelette. He will buy your NFT/eggs in exchange for 0.1 ETH. The catch? As you’d expect, you’d have to waive your claim against Paul.
Scrambled or sunny-side-up? Ok, we’re done.
New Timesheet: Career Hub
We know you mostly come here for hard-hitting legal news, but we want you to get even more out of the 0.2 you spend with us each week. So we’re going to feature a couple of job opportunities and noteworthy career updates from folks in our community.
AI company, Anthropic, is seeking employment counsel in the Bay Area.
Bio-tech Roivant Sciences is seeking a legal operations manager in NYC.
VoxMedia is seeking an assistant general counsel in either NYC or Washington D.C.
A few 0.1’s
A boutique firm is suing Winston and Strawn for allegedly plagiarizing its Rule 12 Brief. Should have had ChatGPT do it.
The ACC’s commissioner revealed that he is incredibly disappointed with Florida State’s lawsuit against the conference. Incredible candor.
An early version of Mickey Mouse just entered the public domain, and he’s already a murderer in a horror film. We think Steamboat Willie was terrifying enough.
Congrats to Netflix’s, Jenn McCarron, who has been tapped to serve as the next president of CLOC (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium).