Can commercials lie when they are selling you something?

Like when they say that for example: 9 out of 10 doctors recommend the product. Can they lie about those kinds of things?

There is lying... and then there is puffery.

Puffery is basically the use of the term... Best or Greatest. There is no way to actually substantiate this statement but the FTC allow them to use it in the terms that any "reasonable adult" would not take this statement at face value.

Advertising can not knowingly LIE to the consumer. Statements such as "9 out of 10 agree" is not puffery or a lie. They used an actual statistical number here which may need to be qualified later. But listen closely to these statements... Did they actually say that 9 out of 10 doctors recommend Crest toothpaste.. or did they say that 9 out of 10 doctors recommend toothpaste? If requested, this company would be forced to present evidence that shows they had actually performed some survey that had in fact 9 out of 10 doctors recommending this.

If an advertisement lies (and this is VERY easy to catch now with YouTube and the internet as a whole) they will be required to spend advertising dollars to correct their statements. And this would look VERY badly upon that particular company.

EDIT

It makes me laugh to see all the people that say advertising lies all the time.

--They don't.--

They have far too much riding on how the population perceives them to even consider knowingly lying to the public. To be caught in a lie has very strong and long lasting implications.

It is true that marketing advertisements attempt to prop their product up compared to the competition but it can not be in a way that is deceptive to the consumer. If in fact it is found to be deceptive the FTC will require the ad to be pulled, corrective advertising at the expense of the offending company, and more often then not fines.

I mean comeon... if Wonder Bread can be charged by the FTC for deceiving advertising with their "building strong bodies in 12 ways" then I'm sure any company claiming a statement to be a fact will be investigated with in reason.

Wonder Bread read - http://www.jstor.org/pss/1287499

So please... do a little research before you jump the ship and claim all advertising is full of lies.

EDIT2

M_Brun:
The statement of "Ford and Chevy....both say they are the longest lasting truck around" is a form of puffery. There is no way to substantiate this statement since it can not be proved to be true or false. If you want to go there then you need to attack Durcel for their "going and going and going" commercials. But then why stop there.... lets hit the gum industry for giving you the "ultimate in fresh breath".. or beer companies for "tapping the rockies."

You also mention that people don't take them to court because they are afraid of the big corp lawyers.... Well in my research about 99% of lawsuits filed are made by another company against the deceptive advertising. This is because their image is hurt by the deceptive advertising... a good example here is Pepsi and Coca-Cola and Papa Johns Pizza and Pizza hut.

So you see... consumers rarely have to take action because other big corporations will do what is necessary to protect their own marketing turfs.

Unless there's harm caused by the lie it doesn't matter. Is it illegal for you to lie?

No. Usually those claims have qualifiers.

There is "truth in advertising" laws. But quite often, it is difficult to pin point and prove the case of false advertising. Your example is the typical case. The advertiser could say, " we are telling the truth because when we surveyed, 9 out of 10 doctors had recommended our product" and show the court their survey results (which could be manupoilated to their favor but nobody can prove otherwise).

can they be cought lieing.......would be a better question.

9 out of 10 doctors in what field? Commercials lie all the time, by law they can't but no one brings them to court on it because people are afraid that the big companies can afford the big lawyers and there is no way to win.
They can ask 10,000 doctors and take 9 of them that agree and 1 that doesn't, put them in room and then they have the ratio they want.
Look at Ford and Chevy....both say they are the longest lasting truck around....how can both of them be....only one can be, but they both say it.

Does Duncan Donuts sell more coffee than Starbucks?

I don't believe so. Then again, generally the doctors they ask are getting samples of their product for free to give out to their patients so it doesn't actually mean much.

Commercials are prohibited from outright lying to you but, as above, they aren't barred from fudging the numbers a bit. They couldn't for example, tell you that something will cure "X" but they can imply, usually strongly, that there's some sort of link between using their product and getting better when you have "X". If they can find doctors, as in your example, who are willing to say that their product is a benefit then they'll push that too.

Most commercials stay pretty vague about the benefits of their product. Something with concrete, testable benefits like a disinfectant (where they've actually done scientific study) will tend to make more firm claims (such as killing "99% of germs) and something like a shampoo will usually just imply that you'll instantly become irresistible to the opposite sex since if they claimed it outright someone, somewhere, would ask for actual numbers to back that up which, obviously, the marketing company couldn't provide and they'd quickly be sued for false advertisement.

they probably estimate a lot or something.

heck yeah said these paper towels would last for 10 years its not true becuase i bought some and after 10 spills and messes poof soaked up. and i did not over use them i used them about every 4 days

Tricky...it's all in the wording. They get away with stuff that our parents would smack us for...lol

Yes, they can lie about the things, but it is not right. They just try to get you to buy it. So don't trust the commercials that tell that junk. Hope this helps!

no they cant lie or they get a lawsuit, instead they give out very low information on it, like they interview 10 doctors and 9 of them says yes instead they SHOULD of interveiw 100 doctors and 99 says yes. or like charter's commercial its like 29.95 for 3 months but they dont tell what the price is gonna be after 3 month its gonna be 49.95 after the 3 month peroid is over. or like they says its free but then they spam you with advertisement or forces you to sign a contract on buying a different product from them in order to have it free.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment:

Archive: Forum -Forum -Finance - Links - 1 - 2 - RSS - All RSS Feeds
The Causes and the Results. 0.064
Copyright (c) 2011 Financial Crisis Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - Terms of use - Privacy Policy