P&G; Sues Amway Dealer Over Rumor

The Procter & Gamble Co. filed a lawsuit Monday against an individual associated with Amway Corp. “for spreading false and malicious statements connecting Procter & Gamble with satanism.”

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Utah against Randy Haugen, a distributor of Amway household products, and a member of the executive committee of the Amway Distributors Association Council.

The complaint alleges Haugen used Amway’s electronic voice mail system to spread the rumor to other Amway distributors.

Procter & Gamble vice president James Johnson said the company had been fighting “this outrageous rumor” for more than 15 years.

“Amway competes directly with Procter & Gamble in a number of our product lines and some Amway distributors have used this rumor to encourage a consumer boycott of Procter & Gamble products,” Johnson said.

The rumors allege that Procter & Gamble’s president discussed satanism on the Donahue TV show and that the company’s trademark is a satanic symbol.

Procter & Gamble said its president “never discussed satanism on any nationally televised talk show, nor has any other executive and the trademark has no Satanic meaning.

Procter & Gamble said it has answered almost 200,000 calls and letters about the rumor.