• Ad Age, Monday, April 23, 2007 11 AM

Tiny organic plant-food brand TerraCycle is making hay out of a lawsuit for trade-dress infringement and false advertising by Scotts, the $2.7 billion maker of Miracle-Gro. TerraCycle CEO and founder Tom Szaky says the brand has gone to great lengths to differentiate itself from Miracle-Gro. For one thing, its labels prominently proclaim all the products are made from worm poop.

TerraCycle has launched a Web site, SuedbyScotts.com, lampooning Scotts. It lists 81 other lawn-and-garden products that use green-and-yellow packaging like Miracle-Gro's. The site also includes side-by-side comparisons of the companies' CEOs. Szaky's main perk: "Free worm poop." Scotts Chairman-CEO Jim Hagedorn's: "Personal use of company-owned aircraft..."

TerraCycle, which projects 2007 sales at $6 million, has garnered free publicity on CBS Evening News, CNN, CNBC and many other outlets. It's also gotten more than 3,000 schools and churches to collect empty plastic pop bottles and milk cartons, which are used to package its products, paying the institutions 5 cents apiece. A Scotts spokeswoman says its suit takes issue with TerraCycle's claims of superior performance.

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