A Complete Idiot’s Guide to Warning Labels

No more reading 12 chapters in one night, hunched over your desk writing equations after equations and plugging in numbers into your calculator. We all deserve a little bit of a break and for that, check out these pictures.

These are some of the most ridiculously dumb warning labels that I have ever seen. Some of my favourites are the warnings for eggs, hair dryer, letter opener, washing machine, Superman costume, scooter and iPod shuffle. The reason for these obvious warning messages? Protecting the consumers from “foreseeable” danger to protect the companies themselves from sham product-liability court cases.

While I do agree that some of the labels are unnecessary and frankly plain stupid, I can understand why companies would rather write ridiculous labels than be sued for marketing incompetence, which basically would be failing to provide sufficient warnings on potential dangers. Although most consumers usually buy products that they already know about and how to use, marketers really have a challenging task of promoting their products so that all consumers know the uses and possible injuries – or even deaths as seen my some of the labels 🙂 – that could result from the products.

If I were in charge of writing the warning messages, I would rather be ridiculed for such obvious labels than be caught up in a big court case. I remember a few years back, a woman sued McDonald’s for burning her tongue drinking hot coffee and actually won with millions in payout! Yes, coffee is supposed to be hot, but some people aren’t exactly bright and I wouldn’t want to lose millions of dollars just for that.