The 7 Most Bizarre Fast Food Industry Lawsuits
We've all heard the infamous story of the lady who sued McDonald's after getting burned by a cup of hot coffee, or the woman who found the chicken head in her McNuggets.
What does not get as much coverage is now many suits get filed in the other direction, as the fast food corporations prove they can think up far stupider reasons to sue than their customers can.
#7.
McLibel
In 1990, two UK versions of hippies were handing out pamphlets on the streets the way hippies (and various cults) tend to. The pamphlets made wild accusations about how McDonald's sells unhealthy food and creates pollution.
McDonald's was not amused and filed a libel suit, which is good for them because a sequel to the pamphlet detailing how McDonald's burgers are made from goat scrotum and how the Hamburglar made a series of gloryhole videos called "Robble Gobble" was already in the planning stages.
The Result:
The case went to trial and pretty much became the biggest, most embarrassing thing it possibly could have been for McDonald's. The two hippies, an out-of-work mailman and a gardener, represented themselves and proceeded to fuck McDonald's six ways from Sunday for seven straight years.
They called 180 witnesses to back up the claims they had made in the pamphlet, and cost McDonald's millions in legal bills. In the end, the defendants had managed to prove three-fifths of their claims, but were found guilty of libel on the rest. However, that managed to prove McDonald's guilty on a number of counts and also made them look like epic assholes.
An appeal by the defendants went on to fuck McDonald's further and make them look even more like a faceless corporation of death bent on killing children with Happy Meals, to the point where McDonald's basically folded and said they would not seek to collect on the money owed.
#6.
Carl's Anus
Burger chain Carl's Jr. sued rival Jack in the Box over an ad campaign that implied Carl's Jr. made their burgers out of the tender meat of the anus.
Carl's Jr. boasts that their burgers are made of "Angus" beef and Jack in the Box staked their entire campaign on the fact that "Angus" sort of sounds like "anus." Carl's Jr. sued on the grounds that people may be too retarded to know that Angus beef does not come from a cow's ass and they wanted to protect that loyal base of retarded customers from being led astray.
The Result:
In July 2007, a judge denied Carl's Jr. an injunction to stop the ads from running. A suit is still pending but obviously it's moot because if Carl's Jr. wins, Jack in the Box can't go back and erase the ads from the customers' memory.
By the way, Carl's Jr. provided survey evidence to show that 36 percent of people thought Angus meat came from cow ass, which begs the bigger question of why they sell Angus burgers at all if they acknowledge a third of people think that.
#5.
Coq Roq
In 2005, band of questionable talent Slipknot sent a cease and desist order to Burger King, asking them to quit advertising their chicken fries via commercials featuring a band that was actually called Coq Roq. Slipknot felt Coq Roq was violating their rights by punking off their incredibly original image that no band had thought of before, not even back in the '70s when KISS did it.
Rather than ignoring them, Burger King responded by filing suit against Slipknot, requesting that a judge declare that Coq Roq was not a rip off of Slipknot. In an actual, legal filing, Burger King reps, presumably with a straight face, detailed how the band Coq Roq is made up of six people in chicken masks named Fowl Mouth, Kabuki, The Talisman, Free Range, Sub-Sonic and Firebird. Also, so the court wouldn't be totally unaware of the finer legal issues, they included lyrics of a Coq Roq song:
Raw desire is the fire I feed
Chicken Fries are what I need
See you standing like BK treat
Long and lean and just out of reach
It's not known if at this point, having read the term "Coq Roq" about a hundred times, the judge decided to abandon law as a profession.
The Result:
After some meetings, Burger King quietly agreed to drop the campaign (it wasn't exactly going over well with customers anyway, since they were using cock innuendo to sell chicken fingers). Meanwhile the whole thing couldn't have done wonders for Slipknot's image, since it's kind of hard to look at them the same way once you realize they're a group of wealthy men with a team of lawyers in their employ.
#4.
There Can Be Only One Glazed Donut
In 2004, Krispy Kreme, riding high on a curious wave of people treating their donuts as if they were made of cocaine and titties, decided to sue donut maker Entenmann's for copyright infringement. It seems Entenmann's had the balls to call their donuts "original glazed" and sell them in white boxes with blue dots on them, which looks exactly like the green and white Krispy Kreme packaging, when viewed from a distance by a color blind and illiterate person who isn't able to read "Entenmann's" on the label.
The Result:
In early 2005, millions of Krispy Kreme customers looked up and said, "Wait a second! These are just fucking donuts! What were we all worked up about?" The company's stock price collapsed and shareholders filed a lawsuit of their own.
Suddenly the vaguely similar Entenmann's box was the least of their problems and they quietly dropped the suit.
I Have an Erection :D
ReplyErr... Congratulations? Shouldn't you be writing a thank you note to the doctor?
meh, i think the hot coffee case is stupid. lets say this:
Replyif i buy a knife from you, then accidentaly stab myself with it, how would you feel if i sued you?
Read up on the case properly. It's not a matter of clumsiness by the respondent. The coffee was actually scalding hot, and I am talking 3rd degree burns, which is not something that a customer needs to deal with. Plus, there were other counts of negligence from McD's part... It was not an overblown case, and the actual final amount received by the claimant was not very huge. Reports are overblown.
First off, krispy kremes are amazing. They're one of the few doughnuts I know of that are actually good enough to be worth eating. Of course I haven't had much experience with eating doughnuts in general considering that I'm already unhealthy enough without also contributing to america's obesity problem, but I do know that krispy kremes in particular are good as hell.
ReplyAnyways though, overall I guess I just don't fully understand the general allure of hooters/winghouse or any of those places. Obviously I love hot chicks as much as the next (straight) dude, but honestly being hungry and horny don't go together for me that much (or at least any more than being horny goes along with anything I do) and even if it did when you go to a place like hooters only one of those needs are being fulfilled.
s**t, to me when companies use attractive women as a profit making point, especially when what they do doesn't/shouldn't really involve attractive women, it just means I have to be wary about the actual quality of their product. If one is hungry and horny, why not just kinda go eat somewhere where they have good, well priced food that will hit the spot, and then afterwards go to a strip club or go buy a hooker or go watch some porn and tame the flesh serpent or something. Hell, the latter actually sounds like it would be better than just going to some place where they have hot employees...when you go to a place like hooters, there isn't even the pretense that you'll leave sexually satisfied. I don't know if dudes go there hoping that maybe they'll be the one dude that one of the waitresses finally decide to give a quickie to in the bathroom, or that if they leave a big enough tip/go there enough that eventually one of the waitresses will become infatuated with em', or that the waitresses acting extra friendly actually want to have sex with em' and don't just want good tips, or what is going through people who like going there's mind.
Plus if you go to a strip club or something, it's not like there's any question why you're there, or like you're hiding the purpose of your visit or anything. You're more or less making the statement "Yes, I'm here to watch women get naked and I am not ashamed!".
I also understand at strip joints women sometimes pretend to like suckers in order to try to get exorbitant tips from delusional dudes, and that's sort of pitiful to watch as well, but you don't have to be delusional or desperate to go to a strip club. One could go there expecting girls to actually like them, or one could go expecting strippers, which is a very normal thing to expect. If one goes to hooters though it's like either they're so ashamed of liking attractive women that they have to pretend like they're just there to eat in order to feel comfortable looking at hot chicks, which is kind of weird, or they're so delusional that they think that somehow having personal contact with chicks who's job it is to be your waiter will somehow result in some sort of sexual gratification greater than just visual, which is also weird.
No matter how you look at it hooters style restaurants just don't make sense. Actually, I guess I can't say that because I've only ever really eaten at hooters, obviously the most successful and widespread of that sort, but maybe there are some places that legitimately have really f*****g good food and good prices and just have hot waitresses as an added bonus, in which case that sounds like an ok deal because one isn't paying primarily to get served by attractive women. It's just the few times I've been to hooters, sadly enough when I was younger and got dragged there by force, the food didn't seem very good at all and the prices didn't either, which has always forced me to conclude the allure must be the women. Maybe some people just really like the food, I don't know, the whole thing just seems really weird to me.
That's the most tl;dr comment I've ever seen.
Hooters was just mad because the Winghouse has skimpy outfits AND amazibg wings, something they have failed to accomplish.
ReplyAny job is good if you've never been employed before.
ReplyWith everybody except McDonalds needing experience, what the hell else would people think about that?
I worked at a mcdonalds for two and a half years. The definition is wrong. A mcjob is where you spend 12 hours a day in hell up to your elbows in overflowing urinals and obese swearing children. Even further on a bad day.
ReplyMcUnion? Not if you want your McJob!
ReplyAlso, does it make me a hippy if I agree with the two people from 7. Fast Food is food in the same way dirt is food. Eating it may not kill you right away, but it's gonna screw your body, and is about nutritionally the same. The only difference is McDonalds tastes better... but in all fairness, I never mixed dirt with fats and salt, and then ate it. So, who knows...
ReplyWhat never made sense to me is why, instead of funding a big McJobs are good campaign, they didn't just give their employees the money they wasted on it. It's like the idea of just doing the right thing doesn't even occur to them. Instead of solving the problem, bullshit the public. And don't say it can't be done. Store's like Costco prove it can be done when the CEO's actually give a shit. They're staff makes good money and they do business without needing bullshit ad campaigns.
ReplyoNcE YOU'VE READ THE.
Reply Hide All See All 4 RepliesFIRST WORD OF.
THIS YOU CANT GET OUT.
READ ON OR.
DIE TONIGHT AT 10:35...... P.M.9 years ago.
a person named Jerry got.
dared to sleep.
in a house that was belived.
haunted.The... next day his friends.
waited for him out.
side the house...................
They had
to go inside and search for.
him. They
went through every room.
exept the
attic.He wasn't supposed to.
sleep
there. He was supposed to.
sleep in the.
living room they went into.
the attic.
They saw Jerry's corpse and.
they just
left because they were.
scared. But that
night they all died because.
of their
friend. He killed them all.
for making him.
sleep in that house If you.
don't send
this to 11 comments you.
will die tonight.
by Jerry. Example 1: A man.
named
Stewart Read this and.
didn't believe it.
He shut off his computer.
and went
through his day. That night
while he
was in bed he heard.
something outside
of his door. He got up to.
look. And now
he's dead. Example 2: A Girl.
named
Haley Read this in the.
morning and she.
got scared but she didn't.
send it. She
wanted to know if it was.
true. She went
to school (She was only 13.
years old)
and that night she died. If
you don't
post this on 11 comments.
tonight Jerry
will 'visit' you.
fag
I am Jerry. And tonight, I'm gonna "visit" your mom. I'm gonna "visit" her so hard...
How can you possibly be such a stupid f**k
Hmmm...well what, did the ghosts recruit jerry? If they have that power, why didn't they just go out and kill people on their own? And are you suggesting jerry got dragged to the attic by these ghosty people, or he just slept there on his own? Because if the latter is the case, seriously, who the f**k has a whole house to their own and sleeps in the attic instead? I'm guessing even if he tried to kill people he'd be too stupid to figure it out if that's the case. Not to mention there would be few people f*****g stupid enough to go sleep alone in an abandoned house, considering the very real dangers of getting freaking stabbed by some squatters and/or meth heads who currently call the place home. They're sometimes way scarier than ghosts. Ghosts may kill your ass, but usually you have to piss them off somehow first. Broke tweaking dudes will sometimes find and kill you if you just so happen to look like you have a lot of money.
And why would there be an abandoned house anyways? They're so out of vogue these days. I mean, nine years ago? That was 2003. I like to think that we have enough infrastructure in place these days that if some dude went missing someone would eventually notice and be able to contact the authorities, and possibly condemn the house while they were at it.
And another question: how do these 'read these or you'll die' things work anyways? What if I didn't speak english but read it and didn't understand it? Would I still have to die then? What if I took all the letters from the little message and reorganized em' and sent em' to someone else? Technically the contents of the message would be the same, it just would be out of order. If it doesn't work that way, how altered would the message have to be to still 'work'? If just one letter was out of place would that screw up the whole thing? Just one word? Two words? How does it work?
And what, are we supposed to assume that these two people who allegedly existed and allegedly died got killed by this jerry fellow? It just says they died. Maybe they both had heart conditions? Maybe the dude who went to check what was outside his door just found a cat that jumped out and scared the s**t out of him and he had a heart attack and died? Maybe this 'jerry' guy is just a victim of misunderstandings? Maybe I want him to come visit and have a talk. He sounds like he could use one after getting all this s**t pinned on him and having died by getting stabbed by squatters.
Oh, and I almost forgot. f**k you you worthless pile of shit. If you're gonna put your stupid f*****g dribble on here, don't f*****g hit enter after every 3 f*****g words. Inbred mouth breathing wastes of life like you are the reason sites disable the ability to use breaks. At least spammers and whatever have a purpose for leaving their bullshit here. Go f*****g kill yourself and finish the job your mother and father/uncle should have finished when your retarded ass popped out in the back of the trailer home those (likely few) years ago. They probably had the water bucket ready and everything, why didn't they just put your ugly, disgusting inbred little head in until you stopped squirming and put an end to your pitiful f*****g worthless existence...
I guess KFC didn't sue "Kentucky Fried Movie" in the 70's because they didn't use a red and white bucket in the ads. I'm sure they would have found the movie offensive, especially the part where the dick was telling jokes (literally).
Replywas I the only one who typed carl jr anus into youtube looking for that ad?
ReplyDid you get fast-food themed porn? Because it's probably out there.
Consider me supersized ;)
can someone point me to the article about the "stupidest" lawsuits ever filed, which will hopefully include the woman who tried to sue McDonald's because the coffee they gave her was "too hot." Remember this woman? She thought it was a good idea to keep a cup of coffee between her legs (while wearing shorts!) and when the lid popped off her drink she got burned by the hot coffee that spilled out.
Reply Hide All See All 7 RepliesCoffee given in a travel cup. That the lids were faulty on. That was so hot it was still registered as "boiling liquid" after it was left sitting for 30 minutes. Yeah, your COMPLETELY right. Ps, she won.
I have no sympathy, if it is as Syn has state then she should of know even better not to shove it between her legs while driving.
Still boiling, after 30 minutes? Just the one cup of coffee without it sitting on a stove or any other heating implement? I seriously doubt that the coffee would still register as boiling after 30 minutes, otherwise Maccas probably isn't using water. Boil a small pot of water, take it off the stove and put it on a neutral room temperature surface. And leave it for 30 minutes. Then return to it and measure the temperature. Feel free to use a thermometer but you'll probably be safe using your hand. And that difference will be felt in a small pot, let alone one mug worth.
Everythingwrong, her grandson was driving. And that car was parked. Yes, it was a 79 year old woman, or something like that. The coffee spilled through her dress and gave her third degree burns and had to be rushed to the hospital, where she got skingrafts and two years of treatment. It may not have been boiling, but it was served at 190 F. The recommended servingtemperature is 140. She tried to settle with them for the cost of treatment and lost income, 20.000 dollars. McDonalds offered her 800. That is when it went to lawsuit and she was given 650.000 dollars. She wasn't greedy. She was a granny who needed 15000 dollars worth of medical treatment because McDonalds served their coffee at a temperature that could cause third degree burns.
And she didn't get the 650k, most of it was taken away on appeal.
Seconding all replies below:3rd deg burns, ER treatment, etc. After all was said and done she was placed under a gag order so McDonald's can put out a publicity campaign that we all will just eat up because we want to prove to ourselves how effed up the legal system is "What a dumb old lady! Of course coffee is hot! Did that greedy old hag think we served cold coffee here?!" The 79 year old woman has no recourse to defend her reputation against such attacks because speaking about it is a violation of the court order. So go ahead and believe all that BS that corporate America shoves down your throat.
Stella Awards and snopes both have sections on her and this case.
And she was wearing *sweats*. And McD's had had *other* too-hot coffee issues in preceding months, and that particular McD's had already been cited for... serving coffee at 180-190 degrees instead of 140.
Slipnot = Psycho le Cemu + Hellraiser.
ReplyWhich is more fail? That Krispy Kreme tried to sue a much older company than them for "stealing their totally original ideas," or that they thought that the company that makes the worst tasting chocolate doughnuts in the world was even worth suing.
I have never brought a KK donut. I always prefered Dunkin'. Though if offered, I'd take one
Carls Junior should have argued that butt meats are the tastiest of all meats; the lions told them so.
ReplyKFC has yet to sue Japanese pop singer Gackt for "Yellow Fried Chicken."
#7, I'd sue the pants off those two hippie slanderers too. I hate their type. Eating organic vegan crap and with their "environmentalism" horseshit and anti-corporation agenda. McDonald's should be suing to collect.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesWhat's the point of one type of bullshitter suing another type of bullshitter? It's fake food made of corn oil & cardboard vs extra-abused animals & foods sprayed with deadly organic pesticides. The only thing they have in common is the heavy garnishment of lies.
What was I talking about again?
So they should be sued for telling the truth, bloody retard.
remember the Penn and Teller Bullshit episode where they pretty much proved organic food wasn't that much better than regular food. Hell, organic freaks thouht the regular food was the organic stuff
Why didn't McDonald's just have those two douche bag hippies killed? They've got hit men money - they totally could've covered it up. I would've had them killed if I was McDonalds'. Hippies are the scourge of the earth.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesThey also should kill the 5 people who disliked cause obviously the love hippies and have no sense of real humor. Those are two thing I can't stand.
Hippies don't have enough meat on them to grind into Happy Meals. Wasn't worth the effort.
Maybe they can resort to cruel and usual punishment... They can try to kill off the douche bags by force feeding McD products.
the last part of #2 made my day
ReplyI'm not gay, but I don't find Hooters waitresses to be all that attractive.
ReplyFor plenty of men a woman who throws herself at you isn't too much fun, makes it easy y'know?
I like tits but I also like the face so when an ugly chick with huge tits walk ups to me I walk away and mourn for the lost of the tits to that butterface.
Double post fail
Reply