But it promised to melt the fat away! It really did! The ad said so! And so did all the smiling people in the ad's testimonials! So, why didn't that fat blocker work? Deceptive advertising. It's a tool used widely today to separate unsuspecting consumers from their hard-earned cash.

Deceptive advertising in today's market place has been on the increase for years. Its impact has been felt worldwide, even reaching into the Pope's domain, in Vatican City, Rome.

A decade ago, the Vatican, so moved by the lack of ethical advertising practices, that it released a Pontifical statement on "Ethics in Advertising," calling for the media to regularly review deceptive practices among advertisers, and for advertisers to be more ethical in their claims. (*1)

Some would say the advertising industry as a whole is without ethics, but this isn't true. Good advertising people know that truth in advertising is just as successful in getting people to purchase goods, as is its deceptive counterpart.

It's the industries, like those producing the "cure-all" products and the "weight-loss" products that cause the trouble; because it's their greed, and not their ethics that fuels their fires, making deception an integral part of their game plan.

DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING:

Consumervoiceusa.com defines deceptive advertising as commercials that omit important information, or make misleading statements about a product; ads that are "likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances."
(www.consumervoiceusa.com/Dece ptiveBusPrac/3-1GeneralAds.htm l)

The worst offenders are the "this-will-work-like-magic" products; weight-loss diet plans and exercise equipment are prime examples of this. It's nearly impossible to read the tiny "fine" print at the bottom of the TV screen when one of these products is being huckstered on an infomercial late at night. The product looks good, the testimonials sound credible, but the actual results usually are not the same as the advertiser would have an unwitting consumer believe.

According to a 2004 article by Rakesh M. Amin, for Herbalgram.org, the FTC had its hands full, a few years back, with false and misleading weight loss campaigns. He cites an FTC report dated September 2002: "fraudulent and misleading weight loss advertising was widespread and on the rise."
(www.herbalgram.org/herbalgram /articleview.asp?a=2686

Other types of products that fall on the fence between deceptive and

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