Questions that some might be asking at this point are: why have we never heard about any of this, and why in 2008 are we still flossing with non-sterile dental floss that is spooled and hand- packaged by factory workers? Where are the Sean Dix FlossRings shown to remove significantly more plaque than Johnson& Johnson's waxed floss alone? Where are the Sean Dix sterile floss segments, proudly and sterilely made in the USA? Who took our product choices away from us? Who removed the new competition from the old- fashioned spooled dental floss market?
These are questions that the public might wish to direct toward Ted Turner, CNN, and Johnson&Johnson.
The CNN crew filmed Sean first at a Drug Guild meeting, and then the crew of Jeanne Moos filmed him at CVS and his apartment. They filmed him stating he had invested approximately $60,000 into his products. He explained again that his products were about to be honored in the National Museum of Dentistry, talked again about the sterility issue and why his superior floss would be an exciting new competitor in the floss market. They already knew all about this, however, long before they ever contacted Sean as they had seen and heard all of this in their copy of the Hammacher Schlemmer video.
As Moos prepared to leave, Sean states she paused to comment on the enormous aftereffects of being on a CNN news segment. "You realize that a piece like this can either make you or break you," she said. Sean found this statement curious. Since his products had received good reviews, he dismissed the warning.
The news clip was scheduled to be run on June 12, 1996. Sean, his investors, his potential investors, his national sales team, his family and his friends were all waiting to watch the clip, and Sean phoned CNN to find out when, exactly, it would be aired so they would not miss it. He was told that it would be aired right after Larry King Live, and he thanked the reporter. "Don't thank me yet," she said, "you might not like it."
As everyone watched, CNN aired the clip, and stunned silence filled Sean's mother's apartment as it unfolded on national TV. The clip was an insulting mockery of Sean Dix and his inventions. In addition, it contained inaccurate scenes invented by Moos and the crews. Removed entirely from the film footage was any and all mention that Sean Dix was about to offer people the only sterile dental floss on the market. In fact, the word, "sterile" was carefully omitted from all dialogue. The sterile floss segments were instead referred to by Moos as "pre-tipped floss segments." There was no mention of the fact that conventional floss is not sterile, which might have truly come as "news" to the millions of viewers watching. There was no mention that Sean's sterile product would have forced the old-fashioned dental spooling giants into an expensive modernization of their equipment in order to compete with one young man by the name of Sean Patrick Dix.
No mention was made about his products being placed on permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian's affiliate museum. Instead, the "news" clip created by Moos was filled with sarcastic ridicule in which she equated his inventions to the sort of junk one finds in a box of Cracker Jack. Her clip began and ended as she poured a cheap, noisy sound-card playing the "Mission Impossible" theme from a box of Kellogg's Corn Pops. The clip never mentioned that Sean had turned down J&J's first agreement. It showed only the later letter from J&J stating they had changed their minds. Two dentists fumbled with the rings and gave disparaging ratings. Sean would later be told that one of the dentists involved was the personal dentist of Moos. Moos ended this clip stating of Sean, "He's a man with a mission - -" and then loudly playing the Mission Impossible theme song again. Above this din she stated, "Try playing that on your FlossRings."
The "American Dream" of a young inventor dissolved overnight into a surrealistic nightmare as Ted Turner's CNN news comedians played their destructive Mission Impossible Corn Pops clip, not once, not two or three times, but repeatedly. Sean need not have worried about "missing" this airing, because the Turner outfit aired it continuously throughout the night and the next day on numerous programs, as well as continuously on "Headline News" until there was complete national saturation. It is not known how many days CNN repeatedly played this destructive clip, because Sean Dix stopped watching CNN on June 13th as his business collapsed around him.
The warning that Jeanne Moos had given Sean about CNN's ability to "make or break" a person, became a reality. When CNN was finished with its false advertising campaign, Sean Dix was completely broken. The investors and national sales teams fled in the aftershock and embarrassment. The empire of Ted Turner destroyed Sean's business, scattered his investors and successfully eliminated the only competition to the spooled dental floss market, overnight. But Sean points out that he was not the only one harmed by this act. The American consumers were harmed as well. We lost our chance to finally have a superior, sterile dental floss, and we lost a chance to have an improved way of flossing that specifically out-flossed Johnson&Johnson's waxed floss, alone.
Some at CNN defended this clip as merely being "humorous," but there is truly nothing humorous about a media giant using its full broadcasting capabilities to air an incomplete and inaccurate clip for the purpose of nationally destroying a worthy new competitor who stood poised to become the new leader in the dental floss industry.
This hatchet job was especially egregious considering the fact that Johnson & Johnson has a heavy presence on Turner Broadcasting. CNN regularly features Johnson & Johnson's products and services on their website as though they were "news," thus blurring the distinction between news and product advertising. Press releases have stated that CNN "collaborates" with J&J. In a press release for "Safe Kids," Turner Broadcasting is referred to as "Johnson & Johnson's partner." Turner has also installed former top Johnson&Johnson personnel into top management within the massive Turner industry, a fact that is worthy of consideration because most shareholders would ostensibly want to protect their shareholder investments. In addition, Johnson&Johnson is among the top ten largest advertisers on earth, another important business consideration especially when comparing J&J's potential advertising revenue to that of one single man, Sean Dix. It was the solitary man who stood to have become a serious competitor with the industry giant, should he have been allowed to move forward...
