Chobani ad gets whacked

Chobani has lost the yogurt ad war with Dannon.

A federal judge in Albany ruled Friday that Chobani must stop running ads for its Simply 100 line that claim Dannon’s rival light Greek yogurt contains chlorine and is unsafe to eat.

One Chobani ad showed a young woman lounging by a pool when she reaches for a Dannon Light & Fit Greek yogurt. A voiceover intones: “Dannon Light & Fit Greek actually uses artificial sweeteners like sucralose. Sucralose? Why? That stuff has chlorine added to it!”

US District Court Judge David Hurd said Chobani can tout natural ingredients but it can’t claim that sucralose is unsafe to consume.

The “zerocalorie, nonnutritive sweetener” has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for human consumption since 1999, Hurd wrote in his decision.

“Pool chlorine, on the other hand, is a colloquial term for calcium hypochlorite, a powerful bleach and disinfectant that is harmful if added to food or ingested,” he wrote. “This substance is distinct both chemically and practically from the chlorine atoms found in sucralose.”

Chobani said that it was disappointed by the ruling but that there is a silver lining: “In the end, if we can give more people more information while helping other food companies make better food, everyone wins.”