Wacky Warning Label Winner: “The Off-Road Commode”
From the archive: published Apr 30, 2009, 17 years ago. Details may have changed since.
The results are in for the 2009 Wacky Warning Label Contest. The contest, now in its 12th year, seeks to find the strangest and silliest real-world warning labels on products. This year’s winner is a portable toilet called “The Off-Road Commode.”
Wacky Warning Labels
The Wacky Warning Label Contest is operated by the Foundation for Fair Civil Justice. Despite the obvious humor involved, its creators have a serious purpose: showing how “out-of-whack” they believe America’s civil justice system really is.
“The contest reveals how lawsuits and the fear of lawsuits have driven companies to spend millions on common-sense warnings,” the organizers say.
The Off-Road Commode
Case in point: The winning entry, “The Off-Road Commode,” is a portable toilet seat for hikers or campers. It’s evidently made to be hooked up to a trailer hitch on a car or truck. On it is a warning label stating: “Not for use on moving vehicles.”
Other top contenders in this year’s Wacky Warning Label Contest, according to the official site:
• A wart removal product instruction guide that warns, “Do not use if you cannot see clearly to read the information in the information booklet.” • A label on the underside of a cereal bowl warns, “Always use this product with adult supervision.” • A small, 1? x 4? LCD panel warns, “Do not eat the LCD panel.” • A bag of livestock castration rings warns, “For animal use only”