Selecciones - Webs

734
Part Seven Special Topics and Perspectives
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
VII. Special Topics and
Perspectives
21. Regulation of
Advertising and Promotion
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
After more than a decade of relative inactivity, the Federal Trade Commission has
once again become active in the regulation of advertising. The commission has shown
particular interest in cracking down on misleading advertising in areas such as health,
nutrition, weight loss, and environmental claims as well as advertising directed to children
and the elderly. 59 The FTC has also become more involved with potential fraud
and deception through various other promotional methods such as telemarketing, 900
numbers, infomercials, and the Internet. In addition to monitoring deceptive claims
made over the Internet, the FTC has become very involved in privacy issues and the
collection of personal information on websites.
Robert Pitofsky, who served as FTC chairman during the Clinton administration,
focused the commission’s attention on developing new policies, particularly as the
growth of the Internet created the need for laws and regulations regarding online privacy
and ways of protecting children online. However, under the Bush administration
the FTC is focusing its attention on the enforcement of existing regulations, particularly
in areas such as telemarketing and Internet privacy. 60 Tim Murris, who took over
as FTC chairman in 2001, has expressed concern about marketers that significantly
alter privacy policies after consumers log on to their websites. The FTC also plans to
eliminate false e-mail advertising and has stepped up its enforcement against senders
of deceptive or misleading claims via e-mail. 61 The commission also is scrutinizing
the use of testimonial ads more carefully, particularly with respect to the use of a
“results not typical” disclosure in situations where the outcomes are more likely to
vary substantially than be typical for most consumers. 62
While the FTC is the major regulator of advertising for products sold in interstate
commerce, several other federal agencies and departments also regulate advertising
and promotion.
Additional Federal Regulatory Agencies
The Federal Communications Commission The FCC, founded in 1934
to regulate broadcast communication, has jurisdiction over the radio, television, telephone,
and telegraph industries. The FCC has the authority to license broadcast stations
as well as to remove a license or deny renewal to stations not operating in the
public’s interest. The FCC’s authority over the airways gives it the power to control
advertising content and to restrict what products and services can be advertised on
radio and TV. The FCC can eliminate obscene and profane programs and/or messages
and those it finds in poor taste. While the FCC can purge ads that are deceptive or misleading,
it generally works closely with the FTC in the regulation of advertising. For
example, in 1999 the Federal Communications Commission and the FTC held a joint
workshop and publicly accused long-distance phone marketers of deceiving consumers
in their advertising. Officials of both commissions expressed concern over perminute
ads for long distance and so-called dial-around long-distance services. They
also warned long-distance marketers that they would take action if steps were not
taken to clean up their advertising. 63
Many of the FCC’s rules and regulations for TV and radio stations have been eliminated
or modified. The FCC no longer limits the amount of television time that can be
devoted to commercials. (But in 1991 the Children’s Television Act went into effect.
The act limits advertising during children’s programming to 10.5 minutes an hour on
weekends and 12 minutes an hour on weekdays.)
Under the Reagan administration, the controversial Fairness Doctrine, which
required broadcasters to provide time for opposing viewpoints on important issues,
was repealed on the grounds that it was counterproductive. It was argued that the Fairness
Doctrine actually reduced discussion of important issues because a broadcaster
might be afraid to take on a paid controversial message in case it might be required to
provide equal free exposure for opposing viewpoints. It was under this doctrine that
the FCC required stations to run commercials about the harmful effects of smoking
before passage of the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1970, which banned
broadcast advertising of cigarettes. Many stations still provide time for opposing
viewpoints on controversial issues as part of their public service requirement, not necessarily
directly related to fairness.