FTC CHMN. ASKS CABLE INDUSTRY HELP TO SCREEN WEIGHT-LOSS ADS
Declaring that some of most “egregious” examples of false or deceptive weight-loss ads permeated cable infomercials and other media “with the notable exception of network TV,” FTC Chmn. Timothy Muris used keynote at Cable Ad Conference in N.Y.C. Tues. to urge cable industry’s help to promote voluntary screening program to weed out worst offenders. Muris sought to allay fears that screening would be too broad in scope or raise First Amendment concerns, and said goal wasn’t to impose mandatory “network-style clearance procedure for weight loss ads.”
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FTC and advertisers “have a long-standing, shared interest in promoting truthful advertising,” Muris told conference. Fighting fraudulent weight loss ads can best succeed “through a joint endeavor” between govt. and industry “that includes voluntary and effective media screening.” He promised FTC legal crackdown on deceptive ads would “continue with full force,” noting that Commission since 1990 had brought 98 cases against marketers of weight loss products and had recovered more than $50 million in “financial remedies.” Nevertheless, he said, prevalence of deceptive weight loss ads is rising. He said FTC report last Sept. analyzed 300 weight loss ads that ran in 2001 and found 40% made claims that were “obviously false.” Another 15% made claims deemed “likely to be false or unsubstantiated,” he said. Moreover, he said when 2001 ads were compared with those that ran in 1992, “the recent ads were much more likely to contain obviously false claims.”
Govt.’s “regulatory powers” should be “the last, not the first, resort” in fighting deceptive ads, Muris said: “Relying on private initiative brings us closer to the ideals of a free society while providing a powerful incentive to improve performance.” To ease industry’s screening burden, Muris said, FTC in next few months will refine list of false claims that appear repeatedly in ads. List was drafted following FTC workshop in Nov. by panel of scientific and medical experts who found claims to be implausible. Once refined, list will be distributed to media “to provide clear guidance for screening ads,” Muris said: “By identifying false claims, we think we can vastly simplify your job.”
Responding to those who had raised objections to voluntary screening as too taxing, Muris said goal was to “weed out the most egregious examples” of false or deceptive ads, not to ask media outlets to “review clinical studies or other substantiation for weight loss ads… This is not rocket science.” He said some media outlets “large and small already refuse to run these obviously false ads” because “they know it is the right thing to do.”
To those who have expressed concern that voluntary screening would open floodgates to “ever-greater scrutiny” of wider array of products, Muris said “this is not our intention.” Voluntary screening such as that proposed for deceptive weight loss ads would be “unworkable for most other ads,” Muris said: “The facts are too diverse, the claims change with too much frequency and the science is too unsettled.”
As for First Amendment concerns, Muris said there was “no constitutional right” to run false advertising, just as cable news outlets had no constitutional right to make false statements about individuals in their news stories. “You take extensive steps to prevent defamation, and we're asking for modest steps to prevent fraud,” Muris said.