Kraft Singles were made with five ounces of milk — the calcium never made it

Kraft launched the 'Five Ounces of Milk' campaign for Kraft Singles: each slice was made from five ounces of milk, and the ads emphasized calcium to ride consumer health concerns. The FTC read two implied claims out of the campaign — that a slice of Singles contains the same amount of calcium as five ounces of milk, and that Singles contain more calcium than most imitation slices. Both were false. About 30 percent of the milk's calcium is lost during processing, and most imitation slices were fortified to the same level — around 15 percent of the daily value.

Kraft argued its ads were literally true: five ounces of milk did go into each slice. The FTC's answer became the precedent: deception is judged by the ad's overall net impression, not by the literal truth of its sentences, and the agency may find an implied claim from its own reasoned reading of the ad without consumer surveys. The Seventh Circuit affirmed in July 1992, upholding a cease-and-desist order covering Kraft's cheese advertising.

The case is still taught as the textbook definition of implied-claim deception: a literally true sentence can carry a false message, and the false message is what the law judges.