March Madness is upon us! Whether you’re filling out multiple brackets or studiously avoiding a certain co-worker because your team missed out, odds are you’re aware the annual men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments are here. But you may also be wondering, how can my business capture the moment in its advertising? The short answer: … Continue Reading
Join Randy Shaheen and Daniel Kaufman as they discuss the Federal Trade Commission’s new Health Products Compliance Guidance. During this webinar, they will share their insights about the new Guidance, highlight areas of particular importance for anyone involved in marketing or analyzing health claims, and explain how this new document differs from the agency’s two-decade-old … Continue Reading
So our holiday gift from the FTC, which flew a bit under the radar if you ask us, was the Health Products Compliance Guide. This was quietly heralded as an update to the 1998 Dietary Supplement Advertising Guides, but oh dear readers, it is so much more. I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but … Continue Reading
To modest fanfare, last week the Federal Trade Commission announced the creation of a new Office of Technology (Office or OTech). The press release noted that the Office “will strengthen the FTC’s ability to keep pace with technological challenges in the digital marketplace by supporting the agency’s law enforcement and policy work.” Any details about … Continue Reading
You make soap, and you come out with a new scent. Then, due to supply issues, you need to change fragrance manufacturers but are confident the new fragrance is almost identical to the old fragrance. Can you use reviews of other soaps in the line? What if you make a widget and you upgrade it, … Continue Reading
I love the Superbowl. I couldn’t give a toss about football. I am there for the snacks, the snacks and more snacks. And Rihanna (congrats, Mama!). And the ADS! Every year, we ad lawyers measure our worth by how many Superbowl ads we have been asked to opine on. “Which ones are yours, Mom?” my … Continue Reading
The days are short and the nights are long, but at least we have the monthly public Federal Trade Commission (FTC) meeting to keep us entertained and informed during these cold months. And we had a bit of an unusual agenda yesterday. First up were some congratulations to Chair Lina Khan on the birth of … Continue Reading
In 1998, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued “Dietary Supplements: An Advertising Guide for Industry,” and for years that document served as an important starting point for analyzing health claims for dietary supplements. Of course, since that document was issued, the FTC has announced hundreds of cases challenging claims that companies have made for health … Continue Reading
New Year’s resolutions are usually quite personal – nobody wants friends telling them how to improve their lives. Knowing this, I nevertheless offer a few resolutions to my former employer, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Watching the agency from the outside for the past 14 months, a number of things have jumped out at me … Continue Reading
For months now we have been talking about dark patterns and all the regulatory chatter associated with them. Many, including us, have been wondering whether it would end up being much ado about nothing, with dark patterns just being a new name for practices such as bait and switch that have long been considered unlawful. … Continue Reading
If there were any question whether the current Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was reenacting the 1970s, that question has been put to rest. And unfortunately, it’s not about seeing Grace Jones, Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol at Studio 54 or wearing our finest velour shirts; the 1970s also saw quite a lot of rulemaking at … Continue Reading
A few weeks ago, we wrote about an interesting development in what had been a fairly standard Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Made in the USA (MUSA) settlement. In short, the company had some major beef with the FTC’s press release about its case. The company and its owner filed a motion to get out of … Continue Reading
For some time now, dark patterns have been quite the trending topic for both marketers and privacy professionals. Regulators have frequently railed against dark patterns that purport to manipulate user choices, usually through manipulative user interfaces. A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation called the DETOUR Act that would ban dark patterns. And outside this … Continue Reading
In a rare example of a sweepstakes leading to litigation, Coinbase and its promotion agency, Marden-Kane, were sued over a sweepstakes run by Coinbase and administered by Marden-Kane titled “Trade Doge. Win Doge.” As part of that sweepstakes, Coinbase offered prizes totaling $1.2 million of Dogecoin to individuals who purchased or sold $100 worth of … Continue Reading
Because I’m someone who is inherently suspicious, my antennae perked up the other Friday when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its annual strategic planning documents. Friday releases in the summer always make me suspicious (what are you trying to bury on this Friday afternoon when I am pondering the weekend?); further, these documents included … Continue Reading
P.T. Barnum famously said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Oscar Wilde, however, gave that quote his own spin and said, “There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Well, some folks most definitely disagree when a whole settlement potentially is tanked over … Continue Reading
We are not quite at the Matrix moment of a red pill/blue pill choice yet, but we are moving closer every day to the possibility of a fully immersive virtual world. And the regulators and watchdogs are already thinking about how we can protect the kids when they venture not outside in the real world … Continue Reading
A recent federal court decision found that FleetCor, a company that sells fuel card services to businesses, and its CEO had violated the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) Act through a series of deceptive and unfair acts and practices. It is not every day that the FTC sues the CEO of a publicly traded … Continue Reading
From Eminem to Snoop Dog, Tony Hawk to Lionel Messi, William Shatner to Brie Larson, music, sports, and Hollywood celebrities have eagerly jumped on the NFT (non-fungible token) bandwagon. Whether launching their own collections, purchasing an expensive profile pic, or simply endorsing new artists, celebrities have embraced blockchain technology and have been extolling the virtues … Continue Reading
Earlier this week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it was initiating a rulemaking to “crack down on harmful commercial surveillance and lax data security.” More specifically, the agency issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security and announced a related workshop on the topic. This rulemaking will … Continue Reading
Sometimes advertising lawyers can be real drama royals. But I do think the latest in the teeth-straightening wars at NAD deserves some attention. I am not yet sure if this signals a new direction for NAD or if this case will be more limited to cases with comparative savings messages. But its recommendation goes beyond … Continue Reading
It is too early to tell if we have a baby wipes war developing to compete with the diapers wars, but we certainly have had lots of activity this year involving the disposable cleanup cloths. An earlier action focused on the adequacy of the substantiation of a claim that WaterWipes were the “#1 wipe against … Continue Reading
If you have been to any kind of spa, beauty supply store or health food store in the past four years, chances are you have seen, if not purchased, a product with cannabidiol (CBD). The 2018 passage of the Farm Bill removed hemp-deprived products, like CBD, from the Controlled Substances Act, leading to a flood … Continue Reading
The ad creative has been produced and approved. The media plan has been crafted. Now it’s time to execute on the plan, and that involves buying the media – i.e., purchasing ad space to place your ads on different media channels (television, print, websites, etc.) so people can see them. Or maybe you’re a publisher … Continue Reading