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Just Mayo vs. Unilever: Biggest Lawsuit in History of Mayonnaise?

By Sam Dunne - November 14, 2014

in Product Design | Food

If you haven't yet heard of it, Hampton Creek is an awesome West Coast startup with a mission to redefine mass manufactured food, one product at a time. Having asked themselves what we could do differently if we reimagined food products from scratch, founders Joshua Tetrick and Josh Balk have already found a serious following—and indeed serious funding—in their attempt to make healthy food alternatives as affordable and tasty—as well as more sustainable—as their traditional counterparts. Just three years in, the brand's first product, 'Just Mayo'—an eggless sandwich-spread alternative, celebrated by loyal customers and celebrity chefs as being better than the real thing—has been flying off shelves from Whole Foods to Walmart.

Well, a dark shadow is looming over Hampton Creek this week as Big Food behemoth Unilever filed a lawsuit against the Just Mayo producers, claiming the plant-based product is deceptive to consumers because it doesn't contain any eggs, bemoaning that the product is already taking a nibble out of their billions of profits by outcompeting their Hellmann's brand. Clearly these food innovators have spooked the food industry.

Now, to be fair to little old Unilever, the word 'Mayo' could be a little misleading if you didn't read the rest of the label: Hampton Creek's branding does include and egg with a pea shoot (the egg in Just Mayo interestingly being replace by pea protein) growing over it. Semantic/ontological questions of what makes mayo mayo notwithstanding, we do have to wonder whether the conglomerate has the consumer's best interest at heart or if they're just trying to hold back the tide of innovation with their legal might. Funny how big business only loves the 'free market' until it gets some real competition.

>David and Goliath

o

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Sasquatch2

10 years ago

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"veganaise" was already taken! If it were a mayonnaise trade group that was defending the words mayonnaise and mayo from bizarre concoctions then fine but this is a company who wants marketshare back. PS, I like veganaise... not sure if better for you but tastes fine to me.
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Moonse

10 years ago

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I wonder if they ever thought about calling it MayNo.
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C

10 years ago

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Can't they just trademark the brand name?
Companies do that crap all the time.

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blehhh

10 years ago

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So are the consumers complaining about the product being deceptive? I mean is this really a huge deal. Why doesn't Unilever file a lawsuit against companies that label their products as "organic" or "natural" when it really isn't or how about filing a lawsuit against companies that refuse to label their food as GMO. Oh that's right because they would be suing themselves.
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C

10 years ago

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Can't they just trademark the brand name?
Companies do that crap all the time.

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powers

10 years ago

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"I can't believe it's not real Mayo"?
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slippyfish

10 years ago

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I'm sure its a good product and "better" for you than the Unilever product. Its a poor naming choice and branding pillar though and its not surprising anything that references another brand through its name ("Just" mayo? What else am I eating?), or gets close to the established name or even nickname of the actual product (mayonnaise) will get targeted by the competition's legal.

(An obvious contrary argument to this guideline is Apple with their 'phone', 'pad', 'watch' etc but they have their own tough legal team.)

Also - you don't really want to suggest that Unilever wants to "hold back the tide of innovation"...? I'd bet that company has employed half the agencies in the world and thousands of industrial designers through its history.
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mye nyme

10 years ago

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sorry, you are on the wrong side of this one. the definition of mayonnaise is a thick, white sauce made from oil, vinegar, and egg yolks. leaving out the eggs may give you a thick white sauce but it is not mayonnaise.

if the fake mayo people prevail in court, using their logic, I will be able to legally sell soy-beef burgers as vegiburgers, or produce as organic while using chemical fertilizer because the plants grow in the ground.

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db

10 years ago

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Sure, it is a case of the big guy picking on the little guy.

But it is the same principle as labeling in Europe. Champagne is a sparkling wine made in Champagne. Parmesan is a cheese made in Parma. Mayo is a condiment made with eggs.

Cool Whip isn't called whipped cream. Cheez Whiz isn't called cheese. I don't know what these folks are making, but it ain't mayo.
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