I live in a city where vax rates are fairly high and adherence to common sense protocols, like mask wearing, is generally pretty good. Occasionally, though, you run into the holdout: the people who, out of belligerence or just flakiness, just won’t get with the program. The young woman sitting next to me on the train this morning was such a person: riding in a pretty crowded subway car without a mask. I’m guessing she was flaky rather than belligerent, but who knows? Let’s face it: sometimes people just don’t exercise their common sense, intellect or reason.
This got me pondering the question of when advertisers have to meet consumers where they are. If a company knows that consumers misuse their products or misunderstand their products’ attributes, is it obligated to set the record straight? (Just to be clear: I’m not doing a dive into product liability law because that’s not my field. So I’m not going to address cases like this.) What I’m focusing on here are principles of advertising law: when does a company have to set consumers straight when they’re flaky, credulous, unthinking or simply too enthusiastic about its products?
Advertisers are, of course, responsible for ensuring that their claims are truthful and accurate. Claims about a product or service’s attributes must be appropriately substantiated. Advertisers are also responsible for implied claims: even if an advertiser doesn’t intend a certain message to be conveyed in its advertising, if a sizable number of...
The League clarified that its forums are intended to give voters a side-by-side look at candidates’ platforms, not to endorse contenders. The League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area (LWVS...