I have met many people that say that advertising does not
work because of the exaggeration it give of the quality of the products or
service. I always finish arguing with those people because they are not
entirely right. Of course advertising works, it can make or break the image and
sales of any product. The part that might be right is the exaggeration of the
quality and benefits of a product. Companies need to be very careful with what
they promise to the consumers. People buy things because of utility and
promises that adverting might do.
A small example of this can be car dealerships. If
dealerships are making advertising in the press or other types of media, they
need to make sure that every offer is correct and if there is any disclaimer,
they need to add it to the legal part of the artwork and/or offer to avoid any
lawsuit.
Known Law Suits
According to thinkprogress.org, in 2008 and 2009 Kellogg’s
sold the Frosted Mini Wheat’s with the promise of improving kids’
attentiveness, memory, and other cognitive functions. In 2009, it was
clinically shown to improve attentiveness by 11%. This caught the attention of
the FTC, which filed a lawsuit to stop Kellogg’s from advertising such claims.
Kellogs could have avoided the lawsuit made by the FTC by
not exaggerating the truth about the product.
In 2011, Naked Juice and parent company PepsiCo where sued
for advertising 100% natural juice but selling unnatural juice.
Nutella paid customers who bought the product between
January 2008 and February 2012 in the United States. The product advertised as
“a healthy breakfast” but the 21 grams of sugar, 200 calories, and 11 grams of
fat per serving said different. The San Diego mom was upset after giving the
product her young daughter as breakfast and finding out the nutritional facts
of the profuct.
The mother won the lawsuit and the Nutella company had to
pay $3 million.
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