If TV advertisers don’t have enough to worry about -- with more viewers avoiding commercials and increased media fragmentation, -- now there’s Operation Full Disclosure from the Federal
Trade Commission. The FTC
sent warning lettersto more than 60
companies – including 20 of the 100 largest advertisers in the country – that “failed to make adequate disclosures in their television and print ads,” according to an FTC
release.
Among the concerns raised were such specific words as "unique," "superior," "worry-free" and "risk-free.”
No names of advertisers were disclosed. But FTC did mention
one advertising category as problematic: “Weight-loss ads featuring testimonials claiming outlier results did not adequately disclose the weight loss that consumers generally could expect to
achieve. A handful of ads did not adequately disclose issues related to the safety or legality of a product or service.”
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The FTC also worried about price: "Many ads quoted the price of a
product or service, but did not adequately disclose the conditions for obtaining that price, while others did not adequately disclose an automatic billing feature. Other ads claimed a product
capability or that an accessory was included, but did not adequately disclose the need to first own or buy an additional product or service.”
Overall, some of these issues have
surrounded TV advertising before. Maybe some marketers believe that in an ever-noisier messaging arena any questionable practices would go unnoticed -- or that potential consumers would search out
more information from the companies’ digital areas or other platforms. And, yes, with too much noise and distraction, perhaps a lot is falling through the cracks -- and consumers sometimes need
to think twice before letting an ad talk them into buying something.