In the summer of 2017, a rumor that Blue Buffalo brand dog and cat foods had been found to contain a large quantity of lead in them and had to be recalled. The rumor had been spread by word of mouth and had caused an up rise on social media. Because of this, a class action law suit was filed claiming that Blue Buffalo's dog food had killed the plaintiff's dog. The plaintiff who filed the law suit had conducted tests on the dog food independently and had claimed to have found a sizable amount of lead; However, the tests were never re-conducted by professionals and were taken by someone with obvious bias. This rumor has been found to be untrue and heavily fabricated. The only actual recall on the Blue Buffalo brand's pet food was a voluntary recall on their BLUE Wilderness® Rock Mountain Recipe TM Red Meat Dinner Wet Food for Dogs because there was a possibility that it could contain heightened level of naturally-occurring beef thyroid hormones, which are not even related of associated to lead. (snopes, 2018)
By Knapp's classifications of rumors, the rumor that Blue Buffalo brand's dog is filled with lead is classified as a "Bogie" rumor. This means that it was created based in fear and anxiety and is meant to thrive off of fear and anxiety. Although, if this rumor had been started by a competitor or someone who really wanted to see the Blue Buffalo brand fail, it could be classified as a "Wedge-Driving Aggression" rumor. A rumor that is stemmed from "aggression and hatred" and is used to diminish trust among allies (Knapp,497). In this case the allies would be the consumers of the product and producers (Blue Buffalo).
Part of what makes this rumor successful is the way it plays on its audiences anxieties and fears. When people hear something that scares and worries them they tend to share that with others to warn them and sometimes to spread the fear, so that they don't feel so alone with these feelings. The dog owning and loving community ate this rumor up in fear that dogs lives could be at risk and most likely spread this rumor to warn rather than to spread fear.
What really makes this a good rumor is how short and simple it is. This makes the rumor easier to remember and therefore easier to tell (Knapp, 497). Other contributing factors in which makes this rumor a good one are the exaggeration of it and how far away from the truth it is which makes it easier to twist into something else as it gets passed along. Although, there are a few things that this rumor that affect its effectiveness. It's life span could have been prolonged if not spread as much on social media, causing Blue Buffalo to catch wind of it and shut it down. It also didn't present any elements, such as humor or aesthetically appealing detail, to give it what it needed to live on as a story (Knapp, 497-498).
This rumor demonstrates "shared human sense-making" by taking one's worries and sharing them to warn others and to try and prevent bad things from happening.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/does-blue-buffalo-contain-toxic-levels-lead/
This rumor demonstrates "shared human sense-making" by taking one's worries and sharing them to warn others and to try and prevent bad things from happening.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/does-blue-buffalo-contain-toxic-levels-lead/
This whole thing to me is crazy and to think that people’s animals actually have died from eating.
ReplyDeleteThe rumor made dog owners worry that their pets would also die from high levels of lead, and the person was obviously feeling hurt that something happened to their dog. This is a very interesting rumor, and many people have a great deal of love for their pets so it would cause an outrage pretty fast. This was a very well written post that made me think about what I would do if someone did that to one of my animals.
ReplyDelete