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Among the other businesses that have been threatened by rumors are Proctor & Gamble (the notion that the company's moon-and-stars symbol was related to Satanism), a Belgian beer that had to ride out a phony report that it caused impotence, and France's margarine industry, the victim of gossip that the lower-price spread was full of dangerous contaminants. Kapferer thinks French housewives got behind the margarine rumor as an excuse to keep buying butter. One margarine company fought back with an ad slogan describing the story as the "rumor that costs you dearly."
Kapferer says injured parties should be careful about how they fight back, since some rumors seem irrefutable. As an example, he cites Sheila, a celebrated French pop singer. Her delivery of a baby did nothing to dampen rumors that she was a male transvestite.