Dive Brief:
- General Mills, the maker of Cheerios, Bisquick, Progresso, and other brands, has removed controversial new legal terms from its website after outrage spread on social media and in the press.
- The food company had made the legal claim that a wide variety of digital activities -- including hitting a "like" button of Facebook -- were tantamount to agreeing to a legal contract in which a consumer surrendered their rights to legal action if a dispute arose.
- General Mills later said its claims were mischaracterized and that a social-media "like" would not result in a loss of legal rights. Downloading a coupon, however, would, according to the cereal giant. When consumer fury continued to grow, General Mills announced it would remove the language from its website.
Dive Insight:
Many thought the "you-can't-sue-us" claims of General Mills were outrageous and comical from the start. As we said at the time, the "lesson here may be that it's always wise to talk to the public-relations, marketing, and social-media teams before letting the lawyers decide a social-media policy."
General Mills may have learned that lesson. In announcing the legal claim, the company posted a note from the director of external communications that seems to take a bit of tongue-in-cheek swipe at the lawyers. On the other hand though, the note makes the dubious claim that "arbitration clauses don’t cause anyone to waive a valid legal claim." That little phrase is already under attack on the Web.