The number one thing you can do to avoid legal issues while advertising and marketing for a product is to make sure the advertisements are not false or misleading. Splenda missed the mark with this one as they claimed their product was "made from sugar". The Sugar Association asked for an investigation into alternative sweetener Splenda's "Made from Sugar" slogan. It complained that the tagline was misleading, and that the sweetener is nothing more than "highly processed chemical compound made in a factory".In 2007, a resulting lawsuit led by the makers of rival sweetener Equal, settled against Splenda. Equal was looking for $200 million from Splenda in the settlement for unfair profits. The lawsuit says the defendants are trying to convince consumers that Splenda is "unhealthy or unsafe," suggesting they'd be better off consuming refined sugar. But a McNeil spokeswoman says sugar is indeed used to make one of the ingredients in Splenda. And she says Splenda's manufacturer has filed court papers against the Sugar Association itself for claims it's made against Splenda.
Splenda had the right idea to say their product was made from sugar, but they failed to mention that sugar was only a small ingredient. The strategy for this marketing campaign was successful enough for their product to be poured into coffee cups all around the country but the fact that it was misleading cost them $200 million. From the opposing view I can see why Splenda counter filed the claim that was made against them since their product does actually have a small amount of sugar in it.
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