{"id":23981,"date":"2021-01-14T09:27:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T13:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=23981"},"modified":"2021-01-18T01:36:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T05:36:57","slug":"dishonest-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"Dishonest Advertising: Is It Really a Problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is dishonest advertising? How can advertisers keep ads from being dishonest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People are understandably uncomfortable with dishonest advertising. In <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ogilvy-on-advertising\/\">Ogilvy on Advertising<\/a>,<\/em> David Ogilvy claims that lying in ads is very difficult because ads go through many channels of approval. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about dishonest advertising and why it matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more Wht Read more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Dishonest Advertisi<\/strong>ng<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if advertisers truly were as unscrupulous as the public seems to believe, <strong>it\u2019s very hard to lie in advertisements. Ads are subject to many codes and go through several levels of approval before they\u2019re allowed to run<\/strong>, including vetting by lawyers, the National Association of Broadcasters, and other organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If an ad <em>is<\/em> accused of breaking a code, authorities such as the Better Business Bureau, National Advertising Review Board, and Advertising Standards Authority review the ads. If they turn up a violation, the Federal Trade Commission will prosecute. This is true dishonest advertising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Advertising to Children<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>There are even more regulations that advertisers must adhere to when targeting children. Ogilvy mentions several prohibitions at the time of the book\u2019s publication. This makes it hard to have dishonest ads. Ads weren\u2019t allowed to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Tell children to ask their mothers to buy a product.<\/li><li>Tell or imply that having the product makes them better than other children, or that other children won\u2019t like them if they don\u2019t have it.<\/li><li>Show war, violence, danger, or anything too frightening.<\/li><li>Show props or costumes that don\u2019t come with the toy that aren\u2019t common household items.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ads had to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Disclose if additional products (such as batteries) were needed to make a product work the same way it did in an advertisement.<\/li><li>Show a realistic play environment.<\/li><li>If the product was breakfast food, there had to be both an audio and video explanation of how it fit into a balanced diet.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Political Advertising<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, <strong>the one type of advertising that has no regulatory overview is political and governmental advertising <\/strong>(such as for government bonds). This is because political advertising is \u201cprotected speech\u201d according to the First Amendment. Networks were forced to run all the political commercials they received, regardless of whether they broke the codes consumer commercials have to adhere to. This can lead to dishonest ads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>As a result, political advertising <em>could <\/em>be dishonest. <\/strong>For example, in the 1964 presidential campaign, Lyndon Johnson made commercials that attacked his opponent Barry Goldwater. The commercials made Goldwater seem trigger-happy and dishonest by purposely taking some of Goldwater\u2019s remarks out of context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ogilvy argues that this kind of advertising <em>is<\/em> evil and would be considered dishonest ads. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is dishonest advertising? How can advertisers keep ads from being dishonest? People are understandably uncomfortable with dishonest advertising. In Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy claims that lying in ads is very difficult because ads go through many channels of approval. Read more about dishonest advertising and why it matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,20,104],"tags":[189],"class_list":["post-23981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-ethics","category-marketing","tag-ogilvy-on-advertising","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dishonest Advertising: Is It Really a Problem? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is dishonest advertising? 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Here&#039;s why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-14T13:27:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-18T05:36:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/advertising-brands-billboards-neon-city-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Dishonest Advertising: Is It Really a Problem?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-14T13:27:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-18T05:36:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/\"},\"wordCount\":436,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/advertising-brands-billboards-neon-city-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ogilvy on Advertising\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Ethics\",\"Marketing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/\",\"name\":\"Dishonest Advertising: Is It Really a Problem? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/dishonest-advertising\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/advertising-brands-billboards-neon-city-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-14T13:27:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-18T05:36:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is dishonest advertising? 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