Truth in advertising? How truthful do ads have to be--and how much should we believe?

• Author: Clifford, Stephanie
• Position: MEDIA

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Pizza Hut calls itself "America's favorite pizza." Bounty pitches its paper towels as the "quick-picker upper." Clearasil promises that its new acne product "visibly reduces redness and pimple size in as little as four hours."

Should you believe any of this?

A lot of advertising uses slogans that aren't necessarily meant to be taken literally. But now even some companies are admitting you shouldn't believe everything you see--at least in their competitors' ads. In fact, using laws designed to protect consumers from deceptive advertising, an increasing number of companies are suing each other, claiming that false advertising by a competitor is hurting their sales.

Longtime foes like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, Campbell's Soup and Progresso, Dove and Pantene, and pet-food makers Science Diet and Iams have all wrestled over ads recently. Pantene has attacked Dove's claim that its conditioner "repairs" hair better, and Iams has been challenged for saying that "No other dog food stacks up like Iams."

"In this economy, where [profit] margins are a bit tighter, a lot of marketing departments have decided to become more aggressive," says John E. Villafranco, a lawyer who specializes in advertising.

What exactly are advertisers allowed to say about their products? In legal terms, advertising is considered "commercial speech"--speech on behalf of a company or individual with the purpose of making a profit--and it's treated differently than other kinds of speech.

"Commercial speech is sometimes called the stepchild of the First Amendment in that it receives some First Amendment protections but not as much as other types of speech," says David Hudson of the First Amendment Center. With a few key exceptions, such as libel and incitement to violence, almost all non-commercial speech is constitutionally protected.

"False and misleading advertising is not protected at all," Hudson adds. "That's where a lot of the court battles come into play, because there's heated disagreement as to what constitutes misleading commercial speech."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Truth-in-advertising laws are designed to protect consumers by requiring advertisers to be truthful and able to back up their claims. The Federal Trade Commission is responsible for enforcing these laws. But the agency doesn't actively search for inaccuracies; it only follows up on complaints.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

"We've all had a pizza delivered to us with a box...