Wacky Warning Labels

When Bob Dorigo Jones started the Wacky Warning Labels™ Contest 17 years ago he wanted to showcase the lengths to which companies feel they must go to avoid the lawsuit-happy culture that is unique to America. Fast-forward to this year’s Contest, and the “winners” are crazier than ever. As the Contest creator and Senior Fellow for Center for America, which sponsors the Contest, he points out that each year, new and ever-costlier symptoms of the plague of abusive lawsuits on our economy and way of life find their way to the public’s eye. This year, he noticed a new trend in labels and, by extension, lawsuits and lawsuit prevention by foreign companies doing business in the U.S.

In the past, warning labels like the one on a fishing lure that advised: “Harmful if swallowed,” and the baby stroller that cautioned: “Remove child before folding” dominated the contest. However, those warnings almost sound logical compared to the winner of the 2014 contest.

This year, the wackiest warning label in America as selected by the audience of a national television show was found on a cell phone battery booster. It warns: “Get rid of children.”

Bob Dorigo Jones is senior fellow at the Center for America, creator of the annual Wacky Warning Labels™ Contest, and the bestselling author of "Remove Child Before Folding: The 101 Stupidest, Silliest and Wackiest Warning Labels Ever."