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Shannon McMullen
Professor Massey-Jimenez
ENC1101
25 August 2014
Community Problem Report: False Advertising
False advertisement has always been in the dark for a long time now because advertisers
and consumers can almost never agree on if an ad in specific is misleading. Its a constant
struggle between the two in the business of marketing. A factor at fault is researchers for not
being able to agree on an exact definition for false advertising or a solution for identifying false
advertising. The fight to make false advertising known to the public is a constant tug of war.
Another reason why false advertising hasnt been brought to light is because its really hard to
identify the falsity in an ad and the facts of the actual product performance for consumers.
Consumers have trouble pointing out false advertising because verifying it is either impossible or
expensive. Its very hard to get ahold of these details to verify the falsity. Once in a while, a
company might correct itself of a product of falsification when it is corrected by a competitors
advertising. This is often seen in many competitive commercials and is often used as a beneficial
tactic by many advertisers in the world of commercializing. Competitive commercials make it
hard for the consumer to make a decision about the particular product. One company claims their
product is better that the other, and vice versa. The consumer never knows what to believe. A
company either self-corrects itself because of a fierce competitor pointing out a flaw, or the
company self-corrects itself because the defect is pointed out by someone, majorly affecting the
sales of the product. In other words, very few people arent buying the product or none at all. A

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solution to stopping false advertising for good is to institute a system for detecting misleading
advertising. Also, that the people in charge of regulating advertising should decide on a system
that determines if an ad is misleading or not.
There are many tactics in deceptive marketing that consumers dont know of. Bait and
switch is an often used tactic and form of false advertising that a marketer might use to cheat a
buyer out of the buyers money. To put it simply, a surprisingly cheap product is put on
advertisement but is immediately replaced in the actual store. The tactic does have its flaws in
that it might actually be seen as silly because the advertising is only attracting customers thatll
be disappointed when they see the product at the store. The consequence of this tactic is that the
customer who would have bought the product at the advertised conditions probably wont even
give the replaced product a chance. However, in some cases, the bait and switch tactic can prove
to be successful. An accurate example of bait and switch is a man who sees an advertisement for
a car advertised at a certain price. When he arrives at the store, the man finds out the car has been
sold out but a very similar car is available with a few more functions. Of course, its more
expensive. He bargains all day and end up buying the more expensive car, maybe just a little bit
cheaper after all that bargaining. This man has just fallen into the trap of bait and switch.
Another tactic that many consumers fall prey to is the celebrity endorsement tactic.
Celebrities pose pretty in front of a camera and use their fame to promote a certain product. Most
celebrities promote a product by urging consumers to buy the product, claiming it works and its
the best product ever. Of course, some consumers arent thinking about the quality and value of
the product but that this well-known celebrity is promoting it so they have to buy it. When
consumers receive their product, they realize that the product isnt all that great as the celebrity
promoting it made it out to be. Advertisers know very well that if a celebrity promotes their

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product, their sales are most likely to increase. Not all celebrity promoted ads are misleading but
some can be.
A very deceptive tactic easy is the free doesnt always mean free tactic. Every consumer
has seen an ad promoting a product that claims to be free. It looks suspicious but consumers are
still drawn in. Many marketers have developed several techniques to cheat consumers into
paying for the marketers free product. Two techniques most used are the risk-free trial and
the strings attached offer. The risk-free trial consists of deceptive marketers that manage to get
your credit card number before you even sign up for the actual product, either because it was a
condition or for a shipping fee, and will charge you a ton of money after the trial is over if you
dont cancel the trial before the trial is over. Its really hard to detect before the trial ends
because the important details are often hidden in tiny print in the terms and conditions. With the
strings attached offer, the consumer is tricked into paying for the product when it claimed to be
free. An example of this is when a consumer signs up for a year-long club membership for a
magazine which will eventually accumulate to a lot of money unless the consumer cancels.
Consumers should be aware of these deceptive techniques that some marketers use so consumers
can avoid these techniques in the future.
An experiment done by Kathryn A. LaTour and Michael S. LaTour, tests whether the
mood of the consumer at the time affects the consumers reaction to false advertising. In the first
experiment conducted, consumers in a bright and happy mood were shown a Disney commercial,
and then a video full of actual facts. Data revealed that consumers who were in a happy mood
were most likely to notice the false information in the Disney advertisement after watching the
video full of facts, contrary to those in a negative mood. However, these consumers as well
would grow positive feelings towards the brand- Disney, in this case. In the second experiment,

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the authors go even further and show the happy consumers a Wendys commercial, and then a
video with actual facts. This caused the consumers to really think deeply on how much false
advertising really goes on. Lingering positive feelings for the brands still remained though. The
negative feelings the consumer had after watching the documentary and discovering the truth
was only temporary and was soon replaced by positive feelings once again.
False advertising has been spreading like wildfire recently. Now, its not just on the TV
anymore, but on the internet as well. False advertising is especially growing on the internet
because the internet is becoming a key factor in marketing. The internet has become the perfect
place for some marketers to cheat consumers out of their money. This is because in this day and
age, technology is used for almost everything. There are so many ways false advertising can
spread through the internet. False advertising plants its roots in blog posts, anonymous online
reviews, applications in peoples mobile phones, and more. There is a Lanham act that states that
anybody who has a good and uses it in commerce in any type of way or form and has even one
single false fact that misrepresents the product, is permitted to be taken in action against by any
person who feels he or she is harmed in any way by that falsity. Even though the Lanham act
states this, there is still much false advertising that goes on undercover. Another source of
protection is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who has the duty of upholding the safety of
consumers and promoting competition. The FTC patrols the internet for false advertising.
However, the internet is a worldwide network and much false advertising slips under the FTCs
radar.
Often times false advertising is passed off and is technically legal. For instance, just because a
sandwich shop may claim, Freshest ingredients you can buy, or, a perfectly healthy man
might appear on TV as announcer intones, This is the face of tuberculosis, doesnt mean these

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people who said this have to go to jail or receive some other serious punishment. Its obvious to
the public that what theyre saying is just for propaganda and theyre not going to come rushing
to that sandwich shop just because a random guy on TV said they had the freshest ingredients
you can buy. The FTC allows it depending on how much it affects consumers. In other words,
the FTC wont get involved unless the advertisement is unfair. If the product causes injury to the
consumer and if it provides no or little benefit to the consumer, the FTC is forced to step in.
What consumers need to be taught about false adverting is how to identify it, how to avoid it, and
how to retaliate.
Identifying false advertising can prove to be a challenge, even with the FTC regulating
misleading ads. With the competitive marketing industry, marketers are constantly coming up
with new techniques to bring up the sales, even if its unfair on the consumers part. The best
thing consumers can do is be aware of these manipulative tactics and learn to avoid them. The
more the public learns about deceptive advertising, the higher the chance of putting false
advertising to a stop is possible. After all, if the public stops buying into cheap tricks, the sales
will drop and manipulative marketers will realize cheating consumers out of their money isnt an
option anymore. A good way for consumers to retaliate is to go to a non-profit organization such
as https://www.truthinadvertising.org/. It will give consumers all the information they need to
know about false advertising and how to avoid it. If a consumer ever discovers a deceptive ad or
scam, they can click on Alert Us on the website and they can let the organization know and the
organization will let it be known to the public. Slowly, but surely, false advertising will be put to
an end.

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One example of false advertising is how

food products are commercialized versus reality. For
instance, McDonald burgers in commercials have food
stylists who actually paint the food. Designers and
photographers work together to make a mouth-watering
illusion. However, the food presented to you in reality is
completely different than the original product in the
commercial. Not just McDonalds, but many big fast-food
chain restaurants do the same exact thing. Some people
even claim that the meat in some fast-food restaurants
isnt real at all. There have been a few cases not brought
to light where the ingredients actually used in the making
of the product arent listed. Consumers should know what
theyre putting in their bodies. The reason more than twothirds of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese is
because people dont know how unhealthy the food
theyre putting in their bodies is. If consumers knew what
they were putting into their bodies, rather than the
flawless food product advertised on TV, then they
wouldnt want to eat it in the first place.

Commercialized products versus reality

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References
1. Russo, J. Edward; Barbara L., Metcalf; Debra, Stephens. Identifying Misleading
Advertising. Business Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations (1981):
119-120. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.

2. False advertising." UWIRE Text 30 Sept. 2014: 1. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Nov.
2014.

3. Lazear, Edward. Bait and Switch. Journal of Political Economy (1995): Vol. 103, No.
4, 813. 5 Nov. 2014.

4. LaTour, Kathryn A., and Michael S. LaTour. "Positive mood and susceptibility to false
advertising." Journal of Advertising Fall (2009): 127. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Nov.
2014.

5. Balough, Cheryl Dancey. "A survey of false advertising in cyberspace." Business Lawyer
(2012): 297. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.

6. Ware, Leslie. Selling it: The Incredible Shrinking Package and Other Marvels of
Modern Marketing. W. W. Norton & Company (2002): xiii. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.

7. https://www.truthinadvertising.org/

8. http://yxhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/fast-food-advertising.jpg