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Truth in Advertising

Exaggerations, deceptions and outright lies are so common in modern-day advertising that we have begun to accept them as a normal part of our consumer culture. The only problem with this is that we consumers are the folks the advertisers are looking to swindle.

The advertisement that irks me the most is one that any television viewer has probably seen a hundred times… FreeCreditReport.com. That ad is a textbook example of deception. First of all… there is no way to get a free credit report at that web site. To get a copy of your credit report, you must sign up for a credit review service costing $39 per month.  This is only revealed in the fine print on the bottom of the television screen, which is more than overshadowed by the attractive young man singing catchy choruses of “FreeCreditReport-Dot-Com.” This ad campaign is doubly immoral because it attempts to make viewers believe the corrupt company’s web site is actually the government sponsored “AnnualCreditReport.com” web site—where you can actually get a free credit report.

Another ad scheme I wrote about earlier this year is almost as bad. It has to do with a bank that included a check $2.89 to customers in their monthly statements. The bank didn’t owe the $2.89; the check was a come-on to join an online coupon service costing $70 per year. By cashing the check, you were signing up for the service. (Turns out the endorsement space was also a contract signature line.)  When I spoke with a representative of the coupon company, he defended this endorsement shell game as legitimate advertising.  I don’t believe it, and I don’t believe he believes it either. There’s no way that a check in a bank statement can be seen as a legitimate informative advertising piece. It is clearly a ruse attempting to get people to inadvertently sign up for the service. Maybe they’ll like the service and decide to keep it. Maybe they won’t want to hassle over seventy bucks. Whatever the outcome, there’s no way that making the endorsement line the bottom line for an agreement to a multi-year service contract could be considered fair and honest advertising methodology.

We deserve better.  

What I’m getting at here is that what I really wish for is something almost entirely unheard of these days.

What I wish for is… ethical advertising.

I know, you’re laughing hysterically. You almost fell off your chair. I’ve heard it before. Are you done? If so, here are my thoughts.

We’ve developed a corporate culture where everyone plays right against the edge of what is legal, completely ignoring the more basic question, “Is it ethical?” Spending millions of dollars to advertise free credit reports when you’re really selling an entirely different service is not ethical. Camouflaging multi-year service contracts as gift checks is not ethical. Declaring that someone can never be turned down for an insurance policy implies fairness, but not if you forget to also say that there is no protection at all against skyrocketing premiums. Alerting cruise passengers at dockside that there was a viral outbreak on the previous voyage is ethical only if you also inform them that most of the facilities will be closed down on their voyage for sanitation purposes and you offer a full refund. (That one's an upcoming “On Your Side” web column.)

Whenever I call for this sea change in advertising ethics, I inevitably hear complaints of the humungous price tag for such regulation and oversight. My response? It shouldn’t cost anything. Ethical behavior should be voluntary! It should be as automatic as not walking naked into Grandma’s house. We shouldn’t need to legislate fair and equitable behavior.  We shouldn’t have to draft laws to compel corporate leadership and employees to act honestly, speak truthfully and respond compassionately.

I guess what I’m really talking about is a return to true American values. Not the jingoistic viewpoint that everything we do is right. That’s balderdash—we make as many mistakes as anyone else. What I’m talking about is frontier humility, the ability to admit error, apologize, make amends and move on. 

Finally… I can make a good argument that ethical behavior can be a major part of the solution to our current economic crisis. If Americans knew they could trust the domestic companies they do business with to provide quality products and services and to immediately correct any errors, we could be well on our way to an American manufacturing renaissance.