In New “Roundup” Lawsuits, The Ad Agency Is A Target

Monsanto’s widely-used herbicide Roundup has been hit with a slew of new lawsuits, which like hundreds already filed allege that the product’s chief ingredient, glyphosate, is carcinogenic – a claim that Monsanto disputes. But these actions, filed in the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri, have a new twist. They name, as co-defendant, the company that for years created the ads for the product. This comes in the wake of recent developments, reported in the New York Times, that raise doubts about glyphosate and some of the studies that Monsanto invokes to argue for its safety. The spate of  lawsuits in St. Louis allege that for years ad agency Osborn Barr helped promote a deception by putting out such claims as that Roundup is “safer than table salt.”