Producers of the Italian hard cheese Grana Padano have instructed their lawyers to sue the US soap-opera The Bold and the Beautiful after claiming a joke on the show damaged their brand.
In a scene broadcast last year, the show's protagonist Charlie Webber is cooking dinner but realises he has bought Grana Padano cheese instead of the better known Parmigiano Reggiano, or parmesan cheese.
He then "shudders with distaste" after realising he has bought the wrong cheese, before giving up on cooking dinner, Corriere dell Sera reports.
Producers of Grana Padano were unhappy with the joke and say it has damaged their brand.
Lawyers for the Grana Padano Consortium have filed a damages complaint against the US show,
They had first checked with Italian channel Mediaset, which broadcasts the show in Italy, to see if the dubbed version was faithful to the original.
“The screenwriting breaks US comparative advertising laws due to the disparaging tone and attitude the actor shows towards our product,” Stefano Berni, the consortium's director, said in a translation by the Local.
He added: “The problem is that Grana Padano, much like The Bold and the Beautiful, is a global product and the negative message could easily have reached hundreds of millions of people."
It is currently unknown how much compensation the consortium has requested.
The Bold and the Beautiful is produced by CPS and has been running since 1987. The show is broadcast to between 300 and 500 million viewers each day in over 100 countries.
The USA is currently the second biggest foreign market for Grana Padano, after Germany, where the show is also broadcast.
Italy exports more than €750 million of the hard cheese each year.
The Grana Padana Consortium and the producers of The Bold and the Beautiful have been approached for comment.
