What federal laws protect a consumer against false and deceptive advertising?
Congress has enacted two statutes that have the greatest effect on advertising: the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Lanham Act. Under the FTC Act, the FTC is given broad authority to regulate advertising. Within this power, the FTC has issued regulations barring advertisements that could be misleading, even if they are true. EXAMPLE: At one time, advertisements for Anacin (a brand of aspirin) claimed that clinical tests proved that it provided the same headache relief as the leading pain relief medicine. Unfortunately, the ad did not mention that the leading pain relief medicine was, in fact, aspirin. According to the FTC, this advertisement was misleading. The FTC also has the power to order corrective ads. These are ads a business will be required to run that alert future consumers to certain unfavorable facts about a product that were not revealed in past advertising campaigns. EXAMPLE: For many years, advertisements for Listerine promoted its use as a cold and sore throat reme
