America’s Wackiest Warning Labels Announced In 16th Annual Contest

by bobdorigojones on June 10, 2013

in Uncategorized

The internationally recognized Wacky Warning Labels™ Contest, now in its 16th year and sponsored by the Center for America, has selected the 2013 FINALISTS! The top five finalists are:

“Wash hands after using.”  A label on a common indoor extension cord submitted by Jeff Dudka of Commerce Township, Michigan.

“Not for contact lenses or direct use in eyes.”  A warning on a small bottle of spray-on anti-fog cleaner submitted by Melanie Champagne of Raeford, North Carolina.

Not for human consumption.”  A warning on a package of rubber worms made for fishing submitted by Lars Eckberg of Knoxville, Tennessee.

“Company will not be held responsible for any illness or injury that is incurred while using the pedometer.”  A label on a commonly used pedometer submitted by Justin Smith of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“Combustion of this manufactured product results in the emissions of carbon monoxide, soot and other combustion by-products which are known by the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm.”  A warning on a box of matches submitted by Ira Stoll of Brooklyn, New York.

Three of this year’s finalists are warnings placed on common products as a direct result of more stringent requirements in California about posting warnings when certain chemicals are present, which sounds fairly reasonable until you dig into the issue.  But there is always more to the story when it comes to these wacky labels.

Focused on Prop 65 in California, the current law lists 774 chemicals for which product makers, sellers and employers must place specific warning signage – and that list includes aspirin, shower curtains, coffee, alcoholic beverages, fishing lures, luggage, cars, and countless other products used safely by consumers every day.  The Prop 65-mandated warnings in our contest this year were found on the extension cord, rubber worms and matches.

It’s been well-reported that Prop 65 has given rise to an avalanche of so-called ‘drive-by lawsuits’ enabling attorneys to file hundreds of cases that provide little if any public safety benefit, but drive up costs and threaten jobs.  This is not a California-only problem, however, as we live and work in a national stream of commerce which affects everyone in America.  The products that are sold in California are manufactured in all 50 states, so this means that the shake-down Prop 65 lawsuits that are filed each year threaten jobs all across America.

Hilarious and thought-provoking past winners of our contest include:

  • “Remove child before folding” – on a baby stroller!
  • “Does not supply oxygen” – a label on a common dust mask (2011 Contest Winner)
  • “Never operate your speakerphone while driving” – on a hands-free cell phone product called the “Drive ‘N’ Talk”! (2010 Contest Winner)
  • “Not for use on moving vehicles” – the warning on the “Off-Road Commode,” a portable toilet seat that attaches to a trailer hitch!
  • “Danger:  Avoid Death” – a warning on a small tractor!
  • “Harmful if swallowed – a warning on a  brass fishing lure with a three-pronged hook
  • “This product moves when used” – a warning on a popular children’s scooter!

Last year, results of the Wacky Warning Label Contest reached more than 190 million Americans via international media coverage.

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Remembering An American Hero Who Was Honored By General Eisenhower

by bobdorigojones on March 8, 2013

in Wacky Warnings

Into The Jaws Of Death

On March 6, 2013, we lost a true American hero who took part in the Allied invasion of France at Omaha Beach on D-Day.  Fred Millard of my hometown of Northville, Michigan was a member of the heralded 1st Infantry Division of the United States Army, also known as the Big Red One.  Today, I would like to pay tribute to him and share a little of his amazing story.

I had the honor of meeting Fred and then developing a friendship with him because of the Wacky Warning Label Contest that I often write about on this blog.  Six years ago, we just happened to be getting our hair cut at the same time in a small barber shop, and Fred overheard me talking about a local NBC television reporter named Roger Weber who was coming to my office to do story about the contest.  Sitting next to me, Fred mentioned that Weber had once interviewed him, too.

“What did he interview you about?” the barber and I both asked, and Fred said that Weber had come to a local school to hear him talk about D-Day.  His granddaughter had asked him to speak to her classmates after learning that her grandpa was a real-life war hero, and word somehow got out to Weber, too.  Surprisingly, the media and Fred’s granddaughter learned about his war experiences not long after Fred’s own children.  It wasn’t until a camping trip in northern Michigan a few years ago that Fred, sitting near a campfire, began sharing stories from World War II that they had never heard.  Until that day, he had said virtually nothing to his family about his wartime experience.

My, what stories they were!  On June 6, 1944, Fred set off for the shore of Omaha Beach in a Higgins boat with 31 other members of H Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infrantry.  After nearly drowning when his company had to jump into water over their heads, he unloaded most of the gear weighing him down and was lucky just to make it to shore.  Once on the beach, he armed himself with a rifle from one of his fallen comrades and quickly developed a plan for making it to the base of the hill in front of him.

Eventually, he joined up with Joseph Dawson, a captain in another company who is well-known today to military historians for being the first officer to reach the ridge on Omaha Beach.  That area is now reverently known as Dawson’s Ridge.  Later that day, as Fred moved inland, he single-handily captured eleven Nazi soldiers.

Fred told me about that experience on Veterans Day, 2008, as my smart phone captured our conversation. It was incredible to hear him give a first-hand account of the events portrayed in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, and we thought it might be a good idea to record them for posterity. If you would like to hear him tell his story, there is an audio file of our conversation here.

We were driving to Lansing, Michigan that day to hear FOX News host, John Stossel, speak at an event.  Stossel had invited me to New York City many years earlier to do one of the first news reports about the Wacky Warning Label Contest for national TV, and I wanted to introduce Fred to him and some other VIPs who would be there.  Everyone who met Fred that evening enjoyed listening to his stories, and before the night was over, he received a standing ovation from the nearly 1,000 people at the reception.

Fred Millard (middle) in the studio of radio Hall of Fame member, Dick Purtan.

Telling all of Fred’s remarkable stories would take hours, but I would like to share one here because it is an experience that eventually earned him a Purple Heart and a visit from General Dwight Eisenhower.

Long before Fred made it to England for the D-Day invasion, he was part of the army’s campaigns in North Africa and Sicily.  One day while he and his company were making their way through the Sicilian countryside, Fred stepped on a buried landmine.  Shrapnel shot into his legs, back and arms, and he was injured so badly he couldn’t go any farther.  Enemy soldiers were quickly moving in and night was falling, so in the heat of battle, a couple of his friends laid him in a roadside ditch and covered him with hay in the hope that they could come back for him the next day.  All through the night, Fred laid there in pain as enemy soldiers walked by him just a few feet away. Miraculously, he survived, and in the morning, his company returned to rescue him.

After that, he spent several weeks in a military hospital recovering from his wounds.  At one point, he nearly died from blood poisoning caused by the lead shrapnel in his body.  As Fred told me this story, he pointed to where the shrapnel was still lodged in him.  Once he became strong enough to walk, he was sent off to rejoin his company and later to take part in Operation Overlord – the largest military invasion in human history.  Of course, we know it today as D-Day.  It was during this time that General Eisenhower heard about Fred.  He was so impressed that he made it a point to personally award Fred the Purple Heart.

It wasn’t the last major award he was to receive.  In 2010, Fred was also awarded the French medal of the Legion of Honour for his extraordinary bravery in helping to liberate France.  The Legion of Honour is the highest distinction France can bestow upon those who have achieved remarkable deeds for France.

It was a great honor to meet Fred and to be able introduce our sons to him.  In recent years, we enjoyed riding our bikes to his house and listening to him tell story after story as his lovely wife, Shirley, would proudly display his latest award or news clipping on the table for us to see.  He also liked to listen to our stories about the Wacky Warning Label Contest, and Fred had definite opinions about why his generation didn’t need common sense warnings like the ones we see so often today.  He would laugh when hearing about a label like the one on a fishing lure that warned, “Do Not Swallow,” and then wonder what has happened to common sense and personal responsibility.  We’ll leave that story for another day, though.

These heroes not only set an example for us through their well-documented bravery and heroism; they have lived their lives as powerful reminders that we as Americans have more in common than we do things that divide us.  Today’s all-too-common “I’m a victim” mentality in America – the very thing that drives much of the lawsuit crisis I comment on every week on the radio – drives much of the political divisiveness that keeps us from doing the big things, the great things.  This is an alien mentality to the likes of Fred Millard and millions like him in the “greatest generation.”  They served, worked, paid taxes, built the strongest nation on earth, and complained very little about the daily “small stuff” that now drives our national discussion.

We would do well as a nation to be reminded of the virtues of this quiet heroism.

Much has been written about the heroic efforts of soldiers like Fred Millard, and it is important to keep all of their memories alive. I have attempted to do that with this tribute to him, and I hope you will join me in honoring this true American hero.

Photo credits:  The top photo was taken on D-Day by  Chief Photographer’s Mate (CPHoM) Robert F. Sargent.

The bottom photo was taken by Bob Dorigo Jones. Pictured from left to right are: Dick Purtan, Bob Dorigo Jones, Johnny Dorigo Jones, Fred Millard, an intern at the radio station who was a veteran of Iraq, and Bobby Dorigo Jones. Dick Purtan, a member of the national Radio Hall of Fame, hosted the annual Wacky Warning Label Contest on his radio show for nearly ten years until he retired.  He is a history buff, so we brought Fred Millard to his studio one day to share some of his stories.

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Asbestos Fraud Case Prompts Call To Refocus On America’s Powerful Plaintiffs’ Bar

by bobdorigojones on January 18, 2013

in Uncategorized

One of the most basic questions that anyone who is involved in trying to eliminate the scourge of frivolous lawsuits from America must grapple with is this one: What can be done about the tremendous influence the plaintiffs’ bar has wielded over the courts?

There are probably well over one hundred legitimate answers to that question.  However, let’s focus on one answer that I believe is as important as, if not more important than, any of them: reducing the amount of cash that plaintiff lawyers have to “invest” in the litigation machine.

To lessen the chance that you will be the victim of a frivolous lawsuit or — since most Americans aren’t sued – to reduce the likelihood that you will be forced to pay for lawsuit abuse against others through higher prices, etc., we must dramatically reduce the amount of money plaintiff lawyers have at their disposal to “game the system” to make it easier to sue.

Over the past thirty years, plaintiff lawyers have used some of the billions of dollars they have collectively made from their lawsuits to help elect judges, lawmakers and other policymakers who have in turn opened the floodgates to even more litigation in America.  We will never know how much they have spent because not all spending is reported to the government, but let’s look at how much lawyers in just one area of litigation, asbestos, have made.

According to a special report published by the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy in 2008, plaintiff lawyers had at that time made $19 billion from lawsuits against companies who made or used asbestos.  Certainly, all of that money didn’t go into hiring expert witness, or even buying lavish homes or Gulfstream airplanes.  A substantial amount was “reinvested” in political campaigns and other ways to influence public policy.  If only 1% of that amount was used to influence the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government, we’re talking about $190 million – from only one segment of the litigation industry!

The staggering amount of money the plaintiff lawyers have to work with was brought to our attention again recently by a news report about two Pittsburgh lawyers who were found liable for fraud in 11 asbestos cases.  According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a federal jury found the two lawyers and a doctor they had hired to read X-rays to be guilty of fraud in 11 asbestos lawsuits filed against the railroad company, CSX Transportation.  The jury ordered them to repay CSX for the amount of money the company had spent defending itself against those 11 lawsuits, a total of $429,240.

CSX had to sue the attorneys to retrieve that money. Michael Krauss points out at PointOfLaw.com that one of the attorneys who sued CSX, Robert Peirce, had filed more than 14,000 asbestos lawsuits against the company.  The doctor he hired had diagnosed tens of thousands of asbestos claims.  CSX included only 11 of the lawsuits that had been filed against it in its case against the men “likely because of statute of limitations or solvency issues,” said Krauss.

This week, we devoted our weekly radio commentary, “Let’s Be Fair,” to this issue in an effort to focus public attention on the magnitude of the litigation problem facing America as well as the enormous amount of money attorneys take from victims.  Asbestos lawsuits are just the tip of the iceberg.  If two lawyers who tried to defraud one company through asbestos litigation were able to force the company to spend nearly a half of a million dollars on just 11 lawsuits, multiply that amount thousands of times over.

Finally, companies should not be forced to sue lawyers who defraud them in order to recoup the money they have lost as a result of these lawsuits.  The government must do a better job of policing the legal profession.  Lester Brickman, a noted law professor and an expert in asbestos fraud, pins much of the blame for the lax government oversight on the U.S. Department of Justice.  In 2011, he told Congress that “Effectively, what law enforcement agencies have done by their inaction is grant lawyers and the medical personnel they hire a special dispensation to commit fraud on a massive scale in certain mass tort litigation.” A full copy of his remarks to Congress is available at the link above.

It is time for the U.S. Justice Department to crack down on the widespread litigation fraud taking place in America.  Until that happens, the plaintiffs’ bar is going to continue growing and investing more money in new ways to file ever more lawsuits.

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Update On The Sioux Who Sued To Keep The Fighting Sioux

by bobdorigojones on November 22, 2012

in Uncategorized

Last Thanksgiving, we reported on a dispute between two Native American Sioux tribes over whether the University of North Dakota should be allowed to continue using the Fighting Sioux nickname.  One tribe wanted the college to keep the nickname, the other refused to endorse it, and their failure to agree was forcing the college to retire the nickname because of likely sanctions from the NCAA.  This week in our “Let’s Be Fair” radio commentary, we provided an update on the situation.

At the heart of the dispute is an NCAA policy that bans college sports teams with American Indian mascots that the NCAA considers “hostile and abusive” from postseason play unless the schools receive permission from local tribes to use the nickname.  In North Dakota, there are two Sioux tribes, and only one, the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe, agreed to let the college keep the name.  Without the approval of both tribes, the college agreed to drop the nickname.

The Spirit Lake Sioux tribe believes that the Fighting Sioux nickname honors their tribe and helps keep their heritage in the public eye, so it sued in federal court to keep the nickname alive.  It took the action after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe failed to endorse the nickname for the college and the college decided to move forward with plans to drop nickname.

Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed the Spirit Lake lawsuit, and later, in June, a statewide referendum was held on the nickname.  In that election, voters authorized the retirement of the nickname.  Despite that setback, members of the Spirit Lake tribe are now circulating petitions to put an initiated measure on the ballot in 2014 that would secure the nickname in the state Constitution.

Although it looks like this dispute will not be settled for some time, the university appears resigned to giving up the nickname.  In October, KFYR-TV in Bismarck, North Dakota reported that UND removed the “Fighting Sioux” sign from its hockey arena.

It’s understandable why the Spirit Lake tribe is fighting so hard to keep its name associated with the University of North Dakota.  Americans, especially our youth, know relatively little about the history of the great Native American tribes. At Thanksgiving, many students learn about how a Native American named Squanto helped the early Pilgrims survive in New England, but beyond that, when will they or their parents be reminded of the Native American cultures? Often, that happens at sporting events.  The Spirit Lake Sioux are concerned that if their nickname is out of sight at those events, they’ll be out of mind.  And if that happens, we all lose an important part of America.

 

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When George McGovern Spoke Out About The Problem of Lawsuit Abuse

by bobdorigojones on October 22, 2012

in Uncategorized

George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee who passed away Sunday at the age of 90, was an icon of American liberalism.  However, as Newt Gingrich pointed out in Politico, he was also “a very complicated person.”

In 1992, eleven years after retiring from the U.S. Senate, McGovern surprised his friends and foes alike by writing a column for the Wall Street Journal in which he explained the problems he experienced while trying to run a country inn during his retirement.  His inn eventually went bankrupt, and he blamed excessive government rules and regulations – the kind he supported in Congress – as big reasons for the failure.

He also blamed one other thing: frivolous lawsuits.  Even after the bankruptcy, McGovern said “we are still dealing with litigation from individuals who fell in or near our restaurant.  Despite these injuries, not every misstep is the fault of someone else.  Not every incident should be viewed as a lawsuit instead of an unfortunate accident.  And while the business owner may prevail in the end, the endless exposure to frivolous claims and high legal fees is frightening.”

His friends in the trial bar were not happy with that column.  Nor were his former colleagues in Congress who relied heavily on political contributions from trial lawyers to finance their elections.  But McGovern wasn’t afraid to speak the truth, and job providers around the country rejoiced at having this unlikely ally speaking out on their behalf.

McGovern was so passionate about the harm done by excessive litigation that he later made a TV ad with former presidential candidate and staunch conservative, Jack Kemp, to urge Americans to join him in the fight against lawsuit abuse.  It’s one of my favorite political ads but was seen by relatively few Americans since it had a very limited run on the air.  It was created for the American Tort Reform Association in the mid-1990s by one of the best political ad producers in the business, Cliff Pintak, and I was given a copy when I became president of Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch in the late ‘90s.  I have posted it to YouTube here so you can see it, too.  You don’t want to miss this one.

A few weeks ago, before I knew that McGovern was in failing health, I devoted one of my “Let’s Be Fair” radio commentaries to this ad because it shows how, especially in this contentious political season, it is possible to rise above “politics as usual” to address our nation’s most vexing problems.

George McGovern meant many things to many people.  Yes, he was a complicated man.  I am hopeful that one of the things Americans will remember about him was his effort to reach across the political aisle to end a problem that continues to plague everyone from inn owners and other job providers to non-profit community groups to this very day: lawsuit abuse.

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Wacky Warning Labels Show Toll Of Frivolous Lawsuits

by bobdorigojones 06.08.2012

Thanks to the Washington Examiner for publishing my recent op-ed about this year’s Wacky Warning Label Contest.  We have had a record number of requests for radio interviews since it was published and have received widespread coverage on television news reports.  Tune in to Stossel on FOX Business News next Thursday, June 14 at 9:00 [...]

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America’s Wackiest Warning Labels Selected In 15th Annual Contest

by bobdorigojones 05.22.2012

The internationally recognized Wacky Warning Labels™ Contest, now in its 15th year, has just announced the Top Five finalists.   They are: An electric razor for men that warns “Never use while sleeping.” Sent in by Dave Woehrer, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A 7-inch decorative globe that comes with the warning: “These globes should not be referred to [...]

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Deadline For Entering 15th Annual Wacky Warning Labels™ Contest Is May 15

by bobdorigojones 05.07.2012

Last call for your outrageous warning labels! If you have seen a funny, common sense label on a product and want to enter it in our 15th Annual Wacky Warning Labels™ Contest, you still have time. But hurry…the deadline for submitting your label is May 15. Over the past 15 years, hundreds of millions of [...]

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The Girl Scouts Have To Sell How Many Cookies For What?!

by bobdorigojones 03.30.2012

The Girl Scouts celebrated their 100th anniversary this March, so I thought it would be a perfect time to share a little-known Girl Scout-related story that illustrates how much things have changed in America in the past one hundred years. The story involves Girl Scout cookies, and who among us hasn’t enjoyed a few of [...]

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Email Disclaimers – The Next Wacky Warning Labels?

by bobdorigojones 02.08.2012

Have you read any good email disclaimers lately? If you get a fair amount of email, chances are that you have at least glanced at a few of them.  Electronic disclaimers are getting almost as common as the wacky warning labels that we see everywhere in America these days, and some are almost as funny. [...]

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