Toilet Brush Wins Top Prize in M-LAWs Wacky Warning Label Contest

A flushable toilet brush that warns users, "Do not use for personal hygiene" has been identified as the nation's wackiest warning label in an annual contest sponsored by a consumer watchdog group.

The Wacky Warning Label Contest, now in it's eighth year, is conducted by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch, M-LAW, to reveal how lawsuits, and concern about lawsuits, have created a need for common sense warnings on products.

The winning labels were selected from a list of M-LAW's finalists by listeners of the Dick Purtan show on Detroit radio station, WOMC-FM. The label on the toilet brush was found by Ed Gyetvai, of Oldcastle, Ontario. He receives $500 and a copy of the national bestselling book, "The Death of Common Sense," by Philip K. Howard.

The $250 second place award went to Matt Johnson of Naperville, Illinois for a label on a popular scooter for children that warns: "This product moves when used." Third place and $100 goes to Ann Marie Taylor of Camden, South Carolina who found the following warning on a digital thermometer that can be used to take a person's temperature several different ways: "Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally."

"Warning labels are a sign of our lawsuit-plagued times," said Robert B. Dorigo Jones, M-LAW president. "From the moment we raise our head in the morning off pillows that bear those famous 'Do Not Remove' warnings, to when we drop back in bed at night, we are overwhelmed with warnings. Plaintiff's lawyers who file the lawsuits that prompt these warnings argue they are making us safer, but the warnings have become so long that few of us read them anymore-- even the ones we should read. Hopefully, M-LAW's Wacky Warning Label Contest will motivate everyone to read their warnings again, and maybe even motivate judges to get tougher on frivolous lawsuits."

M-LAW is a non-partisan, non-profit organization working to increase public awareness of how the litigation explosion is hurting America. M-LAW is dedicated to restoring common sense and personal responsibility to the courts.

To enter the Wacky Warning Label Contest, call 1-888-321-MLAW (6529), or visit www.wackywarnings.com.


Contacts

M-LAW
Robert B. Dorigo Jones, 248-449-2990