Toothpaste Shortfall Enrages Consumer

Do you ever feel frustrated, ripped off and generally mistreated when the last little bit of toothpaste just won't come out of the tube?

This really annoys Jonathan Rothstein, a Californian who takes his dental hygiene very seriously. He's been using Procter & Gamble's toothpastes that come in the “Neat Squeeze” container to keep his pearly whites gleaming but he's become outraged by how much of the product stays in the tube.

It's at least 20 percent, Rothstein estimates, and he's not willing to take it any longer, so he's filed a class action lawsuit against P&G on behalf of the millions of other victims who may not even recognize their plight.

Rothstein may be onto something but then again, he may be a man ahead of his time.  ConsumerAffairs.com conducted an analysis of more than 400,000 mentions of the word "Crest" on Facebook, Twitter and other social media and blogs over the last year and found that almost none of them had anything to with toothpaste.

Of the roughly 440 consumers who made comments about Crest toothpaste, most were positive, as the chart shows:

Net sentiment about Crest remains positive throughout the 12 months studied

There are, of course, other P&G toothpastes packaged in the allegedly nefarious Neat Squeeze packaging but after squeezing the social media tube so hard and extracting so few comments, we decided that perhaps this was not a matter of burning public import, at least at the moment.

Rothstein's suit, filed by the Houston law firm Caddell & Chapman, alleges that P&G is not only aware of the shortcoming but positively gloats about it by placing this instruction on the toothpaste label:

“The Neat Squeeze dispenser has a unique inner bag that empties itself as you squeeze in the middle. When the package gets lighter and is harder to squeeze, it's time to buy more Crest.”

What P&G fails to explain, Rothstein grumps, is that the full volume of toothpaste will not be dispensed, no matter how hard the consumer squeezes. In fact, as Rothstein sees it, once the dispenser becomes “lighter” and “harder to squeeze,” it has effectively shut down, taking any unused toothpaste with it.

Knife attack

At this point, the frustrated consumer is left with no alternative but to attack the offending packaging with scissors or a knife.

But in so doing, P&G's promise of “Less Mess” is shown to be yet another shameless lie, Rothstein argues.

But wait, there's more.

Rothstein notes that the Neat Squeeze dispenser states on the label the net weight of the toothpaste the tube contains – but cruelly gives no hint that the consumer will be denied access to the entire amount.

Not wanting anyone to miss the point, Rothstein's lawsuit explains in great detail that P&G benefits when consumers run out of toothpaste, as they are then likely to go forth and purchase additional toothpaste.

The suit charges P&G with fraudulent concealment, breach of warranty, unfair competition, false advertising, negligent misrepresentation and other travesties and seeks the usual cornucopia of damage awards. 

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