Every day consumers are faced with hundreds and even thousands of advertisements. One can simply sit in just about any public area and spot a multitude of them without even moving their head. With so many advertisements fighting to make themselves visible to the consumers, it is extremely difficult to be distinctive. It is even more complex to make an advertisement memorable and bring the consumer to make the coveted purchase. Because of this, many advertisers and marketers sometimes push the envelope in an effort to stand out from the crowd. The United States has a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) composed of five Commissioners appointed by the president in an effort to combat this falsity, exaggeration, and misimpression of some advertisements today (Cornell). In 2002, Interstate Bakeries, better known for their product Wonder Bread, became one of the companies the FTC pursued for false claims about their product in their advertisements (FTC Cases). This paper will seek to explore the claims made by the FTC, the possible legal issues involved, and the FTC’s decision after their investigation.
According to the Livestrong Foundation’s website, bread does in fact have some health benefits that have been scientifically proven. It states that it is better to eat whole grain wheat bread for more health benefits, but that both still contain thiamine, folate, manganese, selenium, and fiber which are all nutrients that are all important to a healthy, balanced diet. The website goes on to mention other health benefits of bread, especially whole grain, but never once mentions calcium as an added benefit. This is important because Wonder Bread’s claims focused specifically on calcium in its bread and the benefits the calcium would have if on...
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... products and services they are using. An “average” person needs truthful advertising that is not deceptive whatsoever to be able to make a fair and accurate decision about what to use or purchase. Clearly, most people who were told that eating a certain kind of bread would increase their minds, bodies, and memory would definitely eat it over other bread. This is very serious because that is extremely misleading and some people would even argue that bread does the exact opposite. It is even more critical because of the relation to people’s health. That is one topic that is of utmost importance to everyone.
In conclusion, the FTC made the right decision to go after Interstate Bakeries and its ad agency to ensure that this type of marketing did not happen in the future. It is crucial that the Commission continues to do this to protect the public from deceptive ads.
While government intervention is restricting the use of misleading language and informing consumers with actual dietary information, persuasive language techniques are still being used by businesses to influence and mislead consumers into believing a false perception of the product. Advertisements often carry these misleading health and nutrition claims to entice vulnerable viewers who usually can’t make informed decisions about what they buy. This is an increasingly concerning factor in the growing national epidemic of obesity.
The Onion’s mock press release markets a product called MagnaSoles. By formulating a mock advertisement a situation is created where The Onion can criticize modern day advertising. Furthermore, they can go as far as to highlight the lucrative statements that are made by advertisements that seduce consumers to believe in the “science” behind their product and make a purchase. The Onion uses a satirical and humorous tone compiled with made up scientific diction to highlight the manner in which consumers believe anything that is told to them and how powerful companies have become through their words whether true or false.
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
Advertising (marketing) in America is long past its zenith. There may have been a time when people actually paid attention to all of the flash, the glitz, and the hype, but most consumers (especially those in Generation X) are savvy and somewhat skeptical. The public is less impressed and views these types of marketing attempts as desperate, and even pathetic. Marlboro Friday (977) may stand out as a monumental day in the minds of advertisers, but there is another moment that stands out in the minds of consumers; the night a woman disrobed during half-time show at the Super Bowl. It was as if time stood still as a nation witnessed advertising shorn of its pretense. This one event exposed the true state of marketing in America. It seems every attempt to hoodwink and capture the attention of the population has already been tried; there is nowhere new to go. Stooping to nudity to try and capture the attention of the public confirms what the consumer already knows; it doesn’t matter how firms try and “clothe” their products; underneath they are all the same.
Established in 1914, the Federal Trade Commission is an independent regulatory agency in the United States. Its main role is to create a fair and competitive business trade in the United States. Originally established under President Wilson’s administration, the FTC was created to protect the public and businesses from unfair business trade and to formulate a strong and reliable relationship between consumers and businesses. Members of the Federal Trade Commission are appointed by the President and authorized by the Senate. Generally, the FTC is consisted of five appointed members that are sworn in for seven-year terms. However; the current structure of the FTC has only four appointed members: one chairman and three commissioners. Currently, FTC has one vacant commissioner position (FTC.gov, 2014). The current organizational chart of the FTC is constructed as follows: Edith Ramirez (Chairwoman), Julie Brill (Commissioner), Maureen Ohlhausen (Commissioner), and Joshua D. Wright (Commissioner) The Federal Trade Commission also consists of various offices, each constructed to focus on different areas of regulation and rulemaking.
Due to increasing consumer resentment towards ever-increasing monopolistic industries in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the government formulated antitrust laws to allow for a more competitive market. The legislations prohibit anticompetitive business practices such as price fixing, bid rigging, monopolization, and tying contracts.
As a consumer of this materialistic country, I can sometimes feel overwhelmed with all of the advertisements that exist and are thrust at me constantly. While some of them can be cute or creative and occasionally put a smile on my face, the majority of them exasperate me with their stupidity. However, when an advertisement is done correctly and the quality of it astounds the viewer, something amazing can happen. People can start to talk about what they have been impressed by, and word-of-mouth creates further advertising. Advertising is a form of art that reaches millions of people at once and can affect their view on not just the product, but on the entire idea of advertising itself.
Consumers rely on good faith that whatever is being advertised is true. This is why they even go an extra mile to read reviews to ascertain this fact and find out more of what was probably erroneously forgotten. Unethical advertisers know this fact as well and they capitalize on it and manipulate consumers. They know claims are only verified when a person buys and uses the commodity. Thus, by the time the client goes through this process of verifying, the sale person will have made sales for that particular moment. Unfortunately, these kinds of marketers are short sighted and this behavior only works in the short run. Once the consumers find out the truth, they stop using that product and feel exploited. The advertiser and the consumer benefit nothing and this a...
To begin with, misleading advertising is the commercial speech “that can deceive consumers by ambiguity, through presentation or by omitting important information […] or including false information.” It is subject to federal regulation. Before 1895 fraudulent advertising was everywhere. It was not until 1893 to 1911 “when standards were in the making” due to the acknowledgement of ethical dilemmas of false advertising: deceiving the consumer and dishonesty.
From the moment that America has been established, this country has been forced to make our own products. However, in order to sell these products, one must discover the best way to put them on display for anyone to purchase. What better way is there to sell something if you advertise it? From huge industrial LED signs to small yard displays, America has been selling its products for years this way. These very effective ways of telling others to “come buy our product”, have been seen all over the world. Whenever people see an advertisement for anything, that idea or product that they saw is the most prominent thing on their mind at the time. Advertisement has been manipulating the human mind in various
Have you ever seen an advertisement for a product and could immediately relate to the subject or the product in that advertisement? Companies that sell products are always trying to find new and interesting ways to get buyers and get people’s attention. It has become a part of our society today to always have products being shown to them. As claimed in Elizabeth Thoman’s essay Rise of the Image Culture: Re-Imagining the American Dream, “…advertising offered instructions on how to dress, how to behave, how to appear to others in order to gain approval and avoid rejection”. This statement is true because most of the time buyers are persuaded by ads for certain products.
We live in the age of consumerism; we are constantly surrounded by advertisements in our everyday environments. Through television, print, billboards, radio, the Internet and countless other mediums, it seems as though we cannot escape ads. We have become so accustomed to advertisements that most of the time we are unaware of the impact they can have on us. To help us become more aware of the effects of advertisements and consumerism, activist groups like Adbusters has helped bring more attention and awareness to how information and meaning gets generated and transmitted in our society today.
We see advertisements all around us. They are on television, in magazines, on the Internet, and plastered up on large billboards everywhere. Ads are nothing new. Many individuals have noticed them all of their lives and have just come to accept them. Advertisers use many subliminal techniques to get the advertisements to work on consumers. Many people don’t realize how effective ads really are. One example is an advertisement for High Definition Television from Samsung. It appears in an issue of Entertainment Weekly, a very popular magazine concerning movies, music, books, and other various media. The magazine would appeal to almost anyone, from a fifteen-year-old movie addict to a sixty-five-year-old soap opera lover. Therefore the ad for the Samsung television will interest a wide array of people. This ad contains many attracting features and uses its words cunningly in order to make its product sound much more exciting and much better than any television would ever be.
In order to generate sales, marketers often promote aggressively and uniquely, unfortunately, not all marketing advertisements are done ethically. Companies around the globe spend billions of dollars to promote new products and services and advertising is one of the key tools to communicate with consumers. Conversely, some methods that marketers use to produce advertisements and to generate sales is deceptive and unethical. Ethical issues concern in marketing has always been noted in marketing practice. According to Prothero (2008), ethics itself has a profound, varied and rich past. It emphasizes on questions of right and wrong or good and bad.
Technological advancements have changed our culture in many ways, even having it’s personal effect on advertising. With the invention...