10/11/01 'Unfaithful' Tiger Woods Gatorade bottles

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9news.com Wrote:

DENVER - Federal food safety inspectors are investigating the bootleg Gatorade bottles turning up in local stores.
On Saturday night, 9NEWS reported shoppers were finding bottles with photos of Tiger Woods and his wife and the word "unfaithful."

9NEWS sent a crew to a Denver Safeway and found additional mislabeled bottles on the shelves.

A temporary worker for Gatorade says the company sent sales reps and temps into stores Saturday to remove those bottles.

Gatorade told us it has contacted local authorities.

9Wants To Know Investigator Kyle Clark has learned the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations is looking at the situation as a possible tampering or adulteration case.

Samples of the Gatorade are being tested to see if anything other than the label was altered.

Even if the drink is uncontaminated, it is possible that whoever is behind this could face a federal tampering charge if prosecutors decide that person changed the label on a consumer product with the intent to injure a business.

9Wants To Know investigators tracked an e-mail hidden in the label's small print to Jason Kay of Longmont.

Kay admitted he helped a friend pull of what he called a "pop art" project.

"He doesn't want to be contacted," Kay said. "The artist wants to remain anonymous because there are similar future projects in the works."

Kay said the object of the project was to create conversation.

Bottles turning up in the Denver area have hand-written numbers on the bottom indicating each is one of 100.

Kay said there are actually about 1,000 such "unfaithful" bottles planted in stores from Longmont to Denver. He said the hand-numbered ones are just the "collectors' edition."

He admitted the stunt was "very expensive" but wouldn't discuss the details of making the labels or sneaking them into stores.

"I used my connections," Kay said.

Kay acknowledged he had been contacted by Gatorade. He would not say if his friend, who he described as an artist from out-of-town, had also been identified by the drink maker.

He rejected the idea that the project was aimed at making money.

"The artist is not going to make a dime off of these. Money was not the point of the venture," Kay said. "If other make money from this, that's their business."

If you have information about this story, please contact 9Wants To Know Investigator Kyle Clark.

[embm]

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