German chocolate maker Ritter Sport is famous for its square package, and is now in the process of adding the attribute "square" to the company image.
Never mind the stroke of genius that made the company include the word "sport" (sports, indeed) in the brand name, the premium brand image has been slightly tainted by the German Stiftung Warentest, a consumer protection non-profit testing all sorts of consumer goods. The non-profit slapped a "failing" grade rating on the "chocolate nuts" flavor of Ritter Sport because one stated "natural flavoring" is manufactured by a chemical process.
The company defends the label with "the flavor exists in nature", while the non-profit points to the EU regulations that say you cannot claim "natural" if an ingredient is chemically produced.
For once, EU regulations make perfect sense to us. If "exists in nature" was the deciding aspect of any substance, then we could feed our cows and our children pure crude oil and claim it is a "natural ingredient".
Notwithstanding the fact that only the "nuts" version of the many different flavors was hit with the worst rating, the Ritter Sport squares are not amused and have announced legal action against the testers.
We will refrain from buying squares henceforth, not because of the dubious provenance of the flavoring but because the company feels they need to waste money by taking the testers to court.
Our action will hurt Ritter because we have previously interpreted the "Sport" as "making it a sport to eat as much Ritter chocolate as you can".
That would make the author a Ritter Spoil-Sport, right?
[Update 13 Jan 2013] A court has sided with the chocolate factory. The consumer testers are barred from calling the chocolate label misleading.
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