#3 Advertising Ethics

     Shady Advertising!

    Thinking of advertising ethics, it makes you guess how a product is to be advertised. Companies usually advertise their product profusely, and will do or say just about anything to get the public to buy their product. Some companies are ethical and honest about how their products work, but some are not. When you think of the definition of advertising ethics is basically ethics in advertising. Ethics in advertising  include focusing on the truth, providing evidence for claims, and disclosing all affiliations in advertising. Ethics in advertising is important, because by acting ethically with their advertising, a company is being responsible towards the needs of the customer. Companies need to show they have morals when advertising to consumers, because that makes consumers' feel like the company cares about what they need (Goss Agency). 

    Having ethics in advertising is beneficial to the company when there is no deceit from getting someone to buy a product based on false pretenses. Lots of companies do a good job of advertising their product ethically, but some mislead and end up in hot water over false advertising. Today, I will discuss few companies that have unethical advertising. The first on the list is  Activia Yogurt. Activia was introduced in 1987 and has since become one of the world's most popular yogurt. With that being said, Activia faced a grave lawsuit for false advertising. Ads for Dannon's popular Activia brand yogurt landed the company with a class action settlement of $45 million in 2010, according to ABC News. The yogurts were marketed as being "clinically" and "scientifically" proven to boost your immune system and able to help to regulate digestion. The Activia ad campaign, fronted by actress Jamie Lee Curtis, claimed that the yogurt had special bacterial ingredients. As a result, the yogurt was sold at 30% higher prices than other similar products. However, the Cleveland judge overseeing the case said that these claims were unproven (Business Insider). Activia cannot wholeheartedly verify that their products are medically tested to improve health. Activia was forced to remove the words clinically and scientifically from their products to avoid anymore accusations. 

    Eclipse is yet another company that was legally charged with false advertising.  Eclipse gum claimed that an ingredient in their product helped kill germs in your mouth. Wrigley's Eclipse gum may not actually "kill" the germs that cause bad breath, according to a new ruling by the National Advertising Division. NAD is an industry supported advertising police force. The Eclipse campaign had been claiming: Most other gums just mask bad breath. We kill the germs that cause it. New Eclipse now contains a natural ingredient that kills the germs that cause bad breath. NAD found that:

... overall, the advertiser's testing showed some promising results as to MBE's germ-killing ability. However, NAD noted that methodological flaws, particularly the failure to replicate actual use conditions, prevented the studies from rising to the level of support necessary to substantiate the claims (CBS News).Wrigley denied wrongdoing, but was ordered to pay more than $6 million to a fund that would reimburse consumers up to $10 each for the misleading product, in 2010.  Eclipse has now changed the wording on their packaging since the lawsuit. 

    Last but not least, New Balance has faced heavy accusations back in 2011 when their ad professed that their sneakers will be able to burn calories. Health experts found that New Balance shoes showed any significant health boost from the shoes. The toning sneaker claimed to use hidden board technology and was advertised as calorie burners that activated the glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit claimed to have been harmed and misled by the sneaker company. On August 20, 2012, New Balance agreed to pay a settlement of $2.3 million, according to The Huffington Post (Business Insider). Overall, these companies were caught red-handed with misleading and false advertising. These companies have learned a lot about advertising unethically and not everything is about pushing the narrative that your product is perfect as it seems to be.