The Real Trouble with Ripoff Commericals
Mark Cuban in his post on Ripoff Commercials = Stupid TV Stations and Networks states that his television network
"HDNet wont run informercials or any ripoff commercials. We don't need or want their money and I would rather go without commercials than run them. My viewers are my customers. For some reason that is a strange concept to stations and networks these days. They would rather squeek out a commission on herbal enhancement pills and end up with a poorer, upset viewer than run a show without commercial breaks. Thats ridiculous. Its a brand killer"
I do wish that rip-off commercials came with the tag "rip-off commercials", but for good logical reasons, as I have articulated before, scams do not self-announce.
If rip-off commercials don't come with a tag screaming "I am a rip-off", then in order to filter them out we will have to rely upon the sensitivity of Mark Cuban or whomever he hires as his social censor.
Censoring commercial speech has never worked before, so why should it work now?
I suggest a different approach, one which relies upon the open network of bloggers to get to the heart of the matter. Cuban should run any ad for an income earning opportunity as long as he also confirms that the income earning opportunity is registered under the appropriate state business opportunity laws and the federal business opportunity rule disclosure is available. All of this information should be available digitally and television viewers allowed to comment and review the disclosure documents.
This would be a better solution that an outright ban for five reasons:
- Cuban would not have guess at which ads to censor.
- The audience would be provided with the relevant disclosure information.
- Ads that didn't have the necessary registration documents could also be exposed.
- There would be a lot more fire between the true believers and skeptics based on what the disclosure documents revealed.
- Many people are unaware of the information that is legally required to be given to them, and having it disclosed would be generally useful. (None of the commentators on his post or the blogs that linked to his post mentioned the FTC or state business opportunity laws.)
The main trouble with any advertising is that the broadcaster lends some credibility to the content of the ad. By disclosing the relevant information that is required by the FTC and the various states, Cuban would be doing a great service and providing high quality internet broadcasting.
