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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Lawsuit Seeks to Ban Oreo Cookies
Aired May 13, 2003 - 07:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Were going to talk the business of Oreos right now. We have Andy Serwer here "Minding Your Business," minding your Oreos.
Do you let your kids eat Oreos?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, a little bit. Moderation is -- excuse me -- I think very important. I see those cookies over there. I'm going to grab a bunch of those. You'd better guard them, Bill. OK.
Anyway, you know, it's interesting to me, because there are so many of these things out there, these cookies, but there's also litigation that's going with it right now, Daryn, of course. And McDonald's has been fighting this off. Those obesity suits, they seemed to have gone nowhere for now. But believe me, the trial lawyers are not about to give up on this. It seems unthinkable, even five years ago.
Oreos, owned by Kraft Foods which is controlled by Altria which used to be known as Philip Morris. OK, it's all part of...
KAGAN: That's not good business, you know, when it's Philip Morris.
SERWER: Right.
KAGAN: Yes.
SERWER: It's all part of the same company, though. And, of course, Philip Morris is no stranger to this kind of litigation...
KAGAN: Well, of course.
SERWER: ... because of tobacco.
KAGAN: Yes.
SERWER: The big difference here, though, for years they denied that tobacco was problematic, that it was a health risk. With this trans fat and hydrogenated fat, it's interesting to me they sort of acknowledged that it's a problem. They say they've been cutting back on it. So, I wonder if that's going to really hurt them in terms of a legal defense, because you know it's bad but you're still putting it in your food. So, you know, I think that the lawyers are going to set this one up.
KAGAN: We'll see, and we'll all be checking on the markets a little bit later...
SERWER: Yes.
KAGAN: ... and other business of the day. Meanwhile...
SERWER: Yes. We had a good day yesterday, and today, futures are weak because of the bombing, though, in Saudi Arabia.
KAGAN: And we'll have more on that just ahead, talk about the people who actually do business in Saudi Arabia.
SERWER: Right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired May 13, 2003 - 07:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Were going to talk the business of Oreos right now. We have Andy Serwer here "Minding Your Business," minding your Oreos.
Do you let your kids eat Oreos?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, a little bit. Moderation is -- excuse me -- I think very important. I see those cookies over there. I'm going to grab a bunch of those. You'd better guard them, Bill. OK.
Anyway, you know, it's interesting to me, because there are so many of these things out there, these cookies, but there's also litigation that's going with it right now, Daryn, of course. And McDonald's has been fighting this off. Those obesity suits, they seemed to have gone nowhere for now. But believe me, the trial lawyers are not about to give up on this. It seems unthinkable, even five years ago.
Oreos, owned by Kraft Foods which is controlled by Altria which used to be known as Philip Morris. OK, it's all part of...
KAGAN: That's not good business, you know, when it's Philip Morris.
SERWER: Right.
KAGAN: Yes.
SERWER: It's all part of the same company, though. And, of course, Philip Morris is no stranger to this kind of litigation...
KAGAN: Well, of course.
SERWER: ... because of tobacco.
KAGAN: Yes.
SERWER: The big difference here, though, for years they denied that tobacco was problematic, that it was a health risk. With this trans fat and hydrogenated fat, it's interesting to me they sort of acknowledged that it's a problem. They say they've been cutting back on it. So, I wonder if that's going to really hurt them in terms of a legal defense, because you know it's bad but you're still putting it in your food. So, you know, I think that the lawyers are going to set this one up.
KAGAN: We'll see, and we'll all be checking on the markets a little bit later...
SERWER: Yes.
KAGAN: ... and other business of the day. Meanwhile...
SERWER: Yes. We had a good day yesterday, and today, futures are weak because of the bombing, though, in Saudi Arabia.
KAGAN: And we'll have more on that just ahead, talk about the people who actually do business in Saudi Arabia.
SERWER: Right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
