Misleading Ads Essay

To establish that an advertisement is false, a plaintiff must prove five things: (1) a false statement of fact has been made about the advertiser’s own or another person’s goods, services, or commercial activity; (2) the statement either deceives or has the potential to deceive a substantial portion of its targeted audience; (3) the deception is also likely to affect the purchasing decisions of its audience; (4) the advertising involves goods or services in interstate commerce; and (5) the deception has either resulted in or is likely to result in injury to the plaintiff. The most heavily weighed factor is the advertisement’s potential to injure a customer. The injury is usually attributed to money the consumer lost through a purchase that would not have been made had the advertisement not been misleading. False statements can be defined in two ways: those that are false on their face and those that are implicitly false. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1124853/ deception (bedrog) deceptive (bedrieglijk) http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/False+Advertising Effects of the 2003 advertising/promotion ban in the United Kingdom on awareness of tobacco marketing: findings from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2593060/ Lanham act cases http://www.kelleydrye.com/practices/advertising_marketing/lanham_act/42 critics aimed at drug industry for misleading ads http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1124853/ FDA overview: misleading claims in ads http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/cd57/gahart.pdf misleading drug ads (ethics in pharmaceutical advertising) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8477540 a limit to the advertising misinformation effect on memory http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1086/383438?uid=3738736&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21101534852463 the cognitive processing of misleading advertisements in young and old adults http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2489241?uid=3738736&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21101534852463