Sylvia Pennington August 21, 2012 The Age Women’s leisurewear company Lorna Jane has tightened the reins on its Facebook presence with the rollout last week of new software designed to give companies centralised control over their often fragmented social media activities. Australian brands are racing to intensify social media monitoring, in the wake of a warning from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that businesses that fail to remove false or misleading public comments from their Facebook pages could face court action. The warning followed an Advertising Standards Board ruling that deemed everything appearing on a brand’s Facebook page to be advertising, regardless of whether posted by the company or the public. Lorna Jane is the social media doyen of the Australian retail industry with a Facebook page boasting 435,000 ”likes”, individual pages for each of its 126 stores and 40,000 Facebook ”interactions” each week. It is also active in…

Nathan Mawby August 20, 2012 Herald Sun ONE of Australia’s best-loved pie-makers is biting into a new market – breakfast. And dietitians are already worried. Four’N Twenty may be known for meat pies, but from today the company will serve up breakfast burrito-style Brekky Wraps. The traditional meat filling has now been replaced by scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, tomato and cheese, and the pie crust swapped for a tortilla. But dietitian Dr Rosemary Stanton has warned that, with up to 1035mg of salt and 6.7g of saturated fat, the 160g wraps are bad news for breakfast. “The four major risk factors are too much salt, too much saturated fat, sugar and too little dietary fibre – and these breakfasts have three of these problems,” Dr Stanton said. “Saturated fat shouldn’t be more than a third of the total fat for a healthy product, and these are well over that.” Dr…

STEPHANIE STROM New York Times August 18, 2012 Don Barrett, a Mississippi lawyer, took in hundreds of millions of dollars a decade ago after suing Big Tobacco and winning record settlements from R. J. Reynolds, Philip Morris and other cigarette makers. So did Walter Umphrey, Dewitt M. Lovelace and Stuart and Carol Nelkin. Don Barrett is among a group of lawyers taking on food companies over what they say are mislabeled products and ingredients that mislead consumers. Ever since, the lawyers have been searching for big paydays in business, scoring more modest wins against car companies, drug makers, brokerage firms and insurers. Now, they have found the next target: food manufacturers. More than a dozen lawyers who took on the tobacco companies have filed 25 cases against industry players like ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Heinz, General Mills and Chobani that stock pantry shelves and refrigerators across America. The suits, filed over…

The Australian August 17, 2012 IT has been a big week for finger-wagging. Cigarettes will be sold in vulgar, olive-green packets from December now that the tobacco companies (hereafter known as “big tobacco”) have lost their High Court challenge to the government’s plain package legislation. NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell is considering restricting customers to four drinks an hour after the death of a young man in Kings Cross. Meanwhile a self-appointed posse of moral vigilantes is policing the children’s clothing racks in Target, tut-tutting about “inappropriate” fashion choices for girls. We are told they represent a popular rising tide of public anger. How about we put that to a vote? Australians do not need to be told that smoking is harmful; they have heard that message loud and clear. In 1945, 72 per cent of men were regular smokers; by 2010, only 16.4 per cent of men and 13.9 per…

Aug 15, 2012 CSNews CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s High Court yesterday upheld a new law that prohibits tobacco companies from displaying their logos on cigarette packs, a ruling that could set a global precedent, according to an Associated Press report. Starting in December, cigarette packs will be olive-colored and feature graphic health warnings and photos showing the effects of smoking on teeth, mouths, eyes and more. Tobacco companies challenged the law, arguing that the value of their trademarks would be destroyed without the ability to display brand designs, logos and colors on the packs. Tobacco companies British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International are worried that the court’s ruling could set a global precedent that would cut their brand values worldwide, according to the report. “Many other countries around the world … will take heart from the success of this decision today,” Attorney General Nicola…