False advertising has never brought companies any good, and this may be a hard lesson to be learned by American Spirit cigarette company as it faces a class-action lawsuit for alleged misleading advertisements.
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As per report furnished by The Santa Fe New Mexican reports (http://bit.ly/1PVFGIk) a Florida law firm has just filed the lawsuit this week against the producer of American Spirit cigarettes, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., and its mother company, Reynolds American Inc.
Recently the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) too warned Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. for violation of federal law by tagging the product as natural or additive-free.
The company is already under a consent order issued by the Federal Trade Commission in 2000 that requires the company to include a disclosure in their advertising that, “No additives in our tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette”.
On August 27 the agency had written to the company to abide by the 2009 law and modify the risk tobacco products.
A spokesman for Santa Fe Natural Tobacco, Seth Moskowitz, according to santafenewmexican.com, said on Friday that company policy prevented him from commenting on the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, it is also learned the company has submitted an explanation to FDA related to the marketing strategy.
The class-action lawsuit is still unfolding and the American Spirit cigarette brand company is still on the process of providing pertinent documents to defend their ads and disprove the claims thrown at them.
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Descriptions such as “additive-free”, “natural” and “organic”, the lawsuit says, “are patently deceptive, especially in today’s market, where these terms have a potent meaning for the health-and-environmentally-conscious consumer”.
