• Forbes CMO Network, Tuesday, January 12, 2010 10:37 AM

Laurie Burkitt has a piece this morning about "audacious" advertising such as the Weatherproof Obama billboard being a sign of the tough times we're in. When the going gets rough, marketers tend to push the limits about what their products can accomplish, according to Mary K. Engle, associate director for advertising practices at the Federal Trade Commission.

"The biggest problem tends to be that marketers let claims get ahead of science," she says. Take Kellogg's short-lived claim that Cocoa Krispies "now helps support your child's immunity." Or that Frosted Mini-Wheats boosts children's attention span by 20%. The company has modified the latter message to say that the cereal keeps kids "focused" since a study shows that only one in nine show a 20% improvement. Get-rich-quick scams also seem to sprout in the parched fields of the recession.

Finally, companies seem to be paying more attention to what they consider to be bogus competitive claims. A record 85 marketers brought legal disputes against other companies for their advertising claims, according to the Council of Better Business Bureaus' National Advertising Division.

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