Advertisers warned by FTC
FTC Warns Advertisers about Ads which may be Deceptive. According to the press release, "Federal Trade Commission has sent letters to 166 advertisers and 77 media outlets warning them that their advertisements targeting Hispanics are potentially deceptive. The ads were spotted during a one-day surf of Spanish-language newspaper, magazine, Internet, radio, and television advertisements by 60 partners around the United States and Latin America, coordinated by the FTC."
Half of the deceptive ads were apparently for health related products, but the second largest group of deceptive ads were for business opportunities and work at home schemes. Here is a sample of the letters that the FTC sent to the offenders, including dubious business opportunities schemes.
These letters don't appear to me to target the third party provides, ie classified newspapers or website service providers. Nor do these warnings attach any common law liability, since only the FTC has the right to combat deceptive advertising in the US. This appears to be more an exercise in publicity than fraud preventation, in my opinion.
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