false advertising

False advertising is misleading with claims that aren't substantiated by evidence. Every year companies pay millions of dollars to have their product shown on commercials or billboards that shows the great abilities of their products. But when time comes for the Super Bowl companies show the best of the best to make the audience fall for it in a very clever way. Many people don’t know that there is still false advertising on today and still think that everything that they see is true. “Truth" refers to essentially the same concept, that customers have the right to know what they are buying, and all necessary information should be on the label. False advertising is all over the world and is still used today. Companies can find many different ways to per sway the audience to make them think positive, whether it is by lying or if it’s an unhealthy food they would put it with something that is healthy to make it look good. For example, the McDonalds commercials show a burger full of lettuce and tomatoes and it’s all piled high but as soon as you get one from the restaurant it is the complete opposite of that advertise. Any company will mislead the audience to make a dollar. Eric Schlosser, an award winning investigative journalist, states “McDonalds used to buy from over 100 regional ground-beef suppliers.”(Schlosser). America consumes twice as much beef as anywhere else in the world that the busiest slaughterhouse will process anywhere from 300-400 cattle an hour. (Schlosser). Most of McDonalds commercials state that their beef is 100% home grown from an American family farm. When a company is suspected of false advertising an investigation takes place by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and if found guilty they get a Cease-and-Desist order to stop the falsified advertising. The false advertising ends up costing the company a significant amount of money from the ad that shall be pulled from air and also possibly a fine. Also if the company is sued it could also generate additional costs. Plus the lost profit from the product because potential buyers have lost their trust for the company and may choose not to buy any more of their products. Weight loss and diet drug companies are constantly creating ads plagued with false advertisements. They use thin beautiful models to carry the various messages such as lose weight with little to no exercise or effort on the part of the consumer. They make their product advertisements out to be all but simple magic. The buyer who purchases these products is drawn into the buying the product because of the false claims, such as,” “Lose weight without diet or exercise”, “Lose twenty pounds in twenty days”, “Block the absorption”, “Lose weight from your hips”. (Averkamp) In addition to the false statements made by the companies attempting to sell their product, they use the visual aides of thin beautiful models which fools the buyer’s mind into thinking that the product will definitely work because,”the model is so thin and she must also use the product,” right? To stop the false advertising there should be rules and regulations on advertising to help promote the honesty. With these regulations it will reduce the amount of lawsuits that have been called upon. Also it will allow for companies to have higher standards to create a better product.

Clearly even tho there is still false advertising used in todays society and people still believe everything that they are told. People need to be aware of what they are dealing with and should research the product before they buy to ensure they get the best for their buck.