Category Archives: The Ad Watchers Show Notes

Episode Show Notes: When Are Advertisers Responsible for Consumer Ratings and Reviews?

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In this episode of the Ad Watchers, Hal and La Toya discuss endorsements and testimonials. Their conversation also takes a deeper look into the broader category of user-generated content in advertising. 

They began the conversation by talking about the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Endorsement Guides, which offer good insights for the National Advertising Division (NAD) and the industry. They, along with several NAD decisions on the topic and the additional guidance from the FTC, cover the basics of how to use endorsements and testimonials in advertising.

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Episode Show Notes: What Do CARU’s Revised Guidelines Mean for Advertisers?

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On this episode of The Accountability Studio, Executive Vice President for Policy at BBB National Programs Mary Engle facilitates an engaging conversation with Mamie Kresses, the leader of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), about recently announced revisions to the CARU Advertising Guidelines.

Mary and Mamie’s conversation centered around three primary updates:

  1. Moving beyond being television-centric to address and reflect today’s digital advertising environment.  
  2. Incorporating FTC guidance on endorsements and influencer marketing.
  3. Requiring that advertising not portray or encourage negative stereotyping, prejudice, or discrimination.

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Episode Show Notes: The Best Podcast Episode Ever: What is Puffery?

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In this fifth episode of the Ad Watchers series, hosts Hal and La Toya talk about puffery. There is no universal definition for this term, but La Toya provided the following description: “Puffery is an exaggerated, blustering, or boastful statement. Or a general claim that could only be understood as an expression of opinion, not a statement of fact.”

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Episode Show Notes: How Do We Step into the Shoes of the Consumer?

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Hosts La Toya Sutton and Hal Hodes discuss the various types of messages conveyed through ads. During this conversation, Professor Margaret C. Campbell of the University of California Riverside joins them to share insights into how consumers take in and understand advertisements. 

As La Toya shares, “advertisers are required to have a reasonable basis for all messages that are conveyed in their advertising.” This requirement is noted in the Federal Trade Commission’s 1983 Policy statement on deception and cited in numerous National Advertising Division (NAD) cases.

As the conversation continues, they walk through the steps they take at the NAD when they are deciding what messages are reasonably conveyed.

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Episode Show Notes: What’s the Recipe for a Proper Advertising Disclosure?

The Ad Watchers Show Notes

In the third episode of Ad Watchers, hosts La Toya Sutton and Hal Hodes discuss the importance of disclosures, and why it is an important topic for every advertising lawyer to know about.

To set the foundation for the conversation, Hal defines a disclosure, in the context of advertising, as “any information you’re conveying to consumers that seeks to clarify or limit the message conveyed by your advertising claim.” They shared how at the National Advertising Division, they use two phrases to describe what the standard for a sufficient disclosure is, “clear and conspicuous” and “easy to notice, read and understand.”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) applies a similar standard. In 2014, the FTC sent warning letters about the adequacy of disclosures used in advertising to more than 60 companies as part of their program “Operation Full Disclosure.” Around this time, they also published a blog post that uses the mnemonic the Four P’s to serve as a guide to help advertisers check the sufficiency of their disclosures.

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