How many times have you used a product in a way the manufacturer did not envisage with less than wholesome results?

Hands up please because we’ve all done it!

“Read the Label First” is a common phrase which is too often ignored and sometimes with less than funny results.

In 2007, a s a keen but novice gardener I applied a fertilizing lawn feed together with a weed suppressant (as an Englishman I am fanatical about a lush green lawn).  Unfortunately for me, and especially for my lawn I applied a neat weed suppressant which should have been diluted down to 3 parts per 100.  In the following week I watched my lawn deteriorate to a nice shade of pale green and eventually purple and brown as I killed almost everything in sight.

I was less than amused.

Back in 2006, Clorox launched a hard surface cleaner which they claimed was “gentler than water” – many consumers were quick to yank the product off the store shelves until some astute label-reading ninja took the time to point out that this Clorox product was gentler than water precisely because it was water – 99% with 1% Clorox solution added and yet sold for $1.50 and even $2.67 for the spray version.

Read the label before buying is probably a better way of putting it to the consumer at large.

In 2008, a national chain of grocery stores added complimentary disinfectant wipes to its store entries so people could use them to disinfect the handles of pushcarts.  Again, this sounds like a fantastic idea until someone at public relations received a very terse letter from a member of the public that if they really were serious about disinfecting the handles they would have to supply enough wet wipes to saturate the surface to be cleaned i.e. pull wet wipe, squeeze the disinfectant out and repeat until totally soaked – nowhere near as convenient as it all sounded.

Mr. (or Mrs., or probably Ms.) Angry from Somewhere Out There quoted the label instructions on the wet wipes being supplied which backed up their claim making it an even more pointed case that before we, the consumers, read the labels, perhaps the retailer ought to be too (a case of read the labels minus a first).

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