{"id":8103,"date":"2014-07-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-19T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=8103"},"modified":"2020-03-30T19:00:32","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T23:00:32","slug":"product-dangers-deceptive-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising","title":{"rendered":"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced that it sent refund checks totaling $9.3 million to nearly 200,000 consumers<\/a> who bought a device called the \u201cAb Circle Pro.\u201d\u00a0 The company claimed that exercising on the device for only three minutes a day would cause consumers to lose 10 pounds in two weeks.\u00a0The day beforethat, the FTC issued a press release<\/a> about cactus juice marketers having to pay $3.5 million in refunds to consumers after making deceptive claims that the juice treated diseases.<\/p>\n

Not all instances of deceptive advertising are as obvious as the ones identified by the FTC. Advertising often focuses on ways in which a company\u2019s product or service is \u201cthe best.\u201d For some companies, this can lead to overreaching with legal consequences.\u00a0 Companies might also use outrageous claims as an advertising tactic to get attention \u2013 not realizing that their actions could carry a big price tag (even a frivolous lawsuit costs money to defend).<\/p>\n

So, what is deceptive advertising? Advertising is considered deceptive if it is likely to mislead consumers (acting reasonably under the circumstances) and is “material” – that is, important to a consumer’s decision to buy or use the product.\u00a0 Under the Federal Trade Commission Act, advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive, advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims, and advertisements cannot be unfair.<\/p>\n

This begs the question, does all advertising have to be \u201ctrue\u201d?\u00a0 Not necessarily.\u00a0 There\u2019s a fine line between false advertising and puffery. Puffery is a legally permitted exaggeration that would not be taken literally by a reasonable person. The distinction between puffery and false advertising is that puffery is subjective while false advertising consists of objective statements. Objective statements are statements that can be verified. The line between subjective and objective is not always an easy one to draw.<\/p>\n

For example, the FTC is in the process of settling a claim that it brought against L\u2019Or\u00e9al<\/a>.\u00a0Products in the Lanc\u00f4me G\u00e9nifique line sold for as much as $132 at upscale department stores.\u00a0According to the FTC, the ads went beyond subjective beauty claims, emphasizing instead the supposed science behind the products:\u00a0\u201cGenes produce specific proteins.\u00a0With age, their presence diminishes.\u00a0Now, boost genes\u2019 activity and stimulate the production of youth proteins.\u201d\u00a0 The product promises \u201cvisibly younger skin in just 7 days.\u201d\u00a0In analyzing the issue, Lesley Fair of the FTC warns:<\/p>\n

\u201cAds that focus on users\u2019 dewy visage or angelic glow are probably just puffery.\u00a0But once companies make objective product representations, long-standing substantiation principles apply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although this article focuses on lawsuits recently filed by the FTC, there are other potential plaintiffs.\u00a0 Competitors and consumers can also file \u201cdeceptive advertising\u201d lawsuits against companies. The Supreme Court recently sided with juice maker Pom Wonderful in its long-running false advertising dispute with Coca-Cola. Back in 2011, a mom brought a lawsuit against Ferrero USA, Inc., the makers of Nutella, challenging the marketing of Nutella as \u201chealthy, balanced nutrition.\u201d\u00a0 She pursued a class action suit and the suit settled for $3.05 million in 2012.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for you as a business owner? Give your advertising copy a critical review.\u00a0 Look for statements that you make about the performance of your product (or quality of your services) that are measurable.\u00a0 Are the statements truthful and non-deceptive?\u00a0 Can you back up your claims?\u00a0 Marketing, branding and advertising professionals might also want to keep these rules in mind while constructing copy on behalf of their clients.<\/p>\n

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute or be used as general legal advice, or as a solicitation of any type.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced that it sent refund checks totaling $9.3 million to nearly 200,000 consumers who bought a device called the \u201cAb Circle Pro.\u201d\u00a0 The company claimed that exercising on the device for only three minutes a day would cause consumers to lose 10 pounds in two weeks.\u00a0The day beforethat, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1229,"featured_media":8119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYour product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced that it\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced that it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ideas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-19T18:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-30T23:00:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?resize=1440,810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-19T18:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-30T23:00:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising\"},\"wordCount\":607,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?fit=3000%2C2000\",\"articleSection\":[\"Professional Development\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising\",\"name\":\"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?fit=3000%2C2000\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-19T18:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-30T23:00:32+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced that it\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?fit=3000%2C2000\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?fit=3000%2C2000\",\"width\":3000,\"height\":2000},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Professional Development\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"name\":\"Ideas\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\",\"name\":\"WeWork\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"width\":55,\"height\":55,\"caption\":\"WeWork\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising","description":"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced that it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising","og_description":"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced that it","og_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising","og_site_name":"Ideas","article_published_time":"2014-07-19T18:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-30T23:00:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1440,"height":810,"url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?resize=1440,810","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising","datePublished":"2014-07-19T18:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-30T23:00:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising"},"wordCount":607,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?fit=3000%2C2000","articleSection":["Professional Development"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising","name":"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?fit=3000%2C2000","datePublished":"2014-07-19T18:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-30T23:00:32+00:00","description":"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced that it","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?fit=3000%2C2000","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?fit=3000%2C2000","width":3000,"height":2000},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/product-dangers-deceptive-advertising#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Professional Development","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Your product does what? The dangers of deceptive advertising"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","name":"Ideas","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization","name":"WeWork","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","width":55,"height":55,"caption":"WeWork"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/07\/mona.jpg?fit=3000%2C2000","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44974,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8103\/revisions\/44974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}