You Work for an Ad Agency and You Are Working

Question

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The Answer is You come up with the slogan "Truckasaurus: the top carnivore and the safest vehicle on American roads!" and set out to prove your slogan with a television ad that depicts the Truckasaurus pushing and ramming its way through a road littered with other, punier, SUVs, while the back seat full of kids on their way to soccer practice squeals with delight. To make the collisions more action-packed, you rig the other SUVs to explode when Truckasaurus comes into contact with them. You don't disclose that you rigged the other cars to burst into flames on impact. Your advertisement is widely successful and sales and emissions of greenhouse gases are through the roof. You even rename your ad agency Adagencyasaurus, to capitalize on the ad campaign. However, soon the FTC is knocking at your door asking to review your records. Have you violated the FTC Act's prohibition on deceptive advertising?
The FTC Act prohibits false and deceptive acts and practices in the marketing of goods and services. The FTC will evaluate the entire ad to determine what message it conveys to consumers. According to the FTC's Policy Statement on Deception, an ad is deceptive if: 1) it contains a representation, omission, or practice that 2) is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances and 3) is "material." The FTC will determine if an ad is deceptive by either: 1) proving the ad's falsity or 2) by showing that its proponent lacked a reasonable basis for asserting its truth. The FTC will also examine whether the ad omits information in such a way as to deceive or mislead the consumer.
Here, the ad sounds like a mock-up. Any use of a mock-up should be revealed, unless the mock-up or prop is necessary because of the difficulty of showing the actual product in the advertisement. The ad used pyrotechnics to inflate the actual properties of the Truckasaurus, without disclosing their use. A reasonable consumer could be mislead into thinking that Truckasaurus really did have the power to destroy all opposition on the road even if the customer understood that such actions would be illegal). The FTC also considers express claims presumptively material. It is further unlikely that you could really substantiate your claims of road domination, because it is unlikely that the car company would ever really test the destructive power of Truckasaurus. Thus, you fail both FTC tests for deception and the ad is likely deceptive.

You Work for an Ad Agency and You Are Working

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