Truth in Cat-vertising Consumer News Truth in Cat-vertising Why are there so many cats in ads now, anyway?
FTC Pursues First Cell Cramming Case Consumer News FTC Pursues First Cell Cramming Case The FTC filed its first complaint against a company for “mobile phone cramming.”
Are Mattress Claims Keeping You Up at Night? Ad Alert Are Mattress Claims Keeping You Up at Night? The NAD ruled that Tempur-pedic could no longer claim their mattresses “sleep cooler”.
Faux Fur a Marketing Faux Pas? Consumer News Faux Fur a Marketing Faux Pas? Neiman Marcus, others settle with FTC after marketing rabbit, raccoon, and other real fur as fakes.
FTC Cracks Down on “Free Gift” Text Spam Consumer News FTC Cracks Down on “Free Gift” Text Spam Agency charges 29 with alleged scams.
Toying with Gender Marketing Blog Toying with Gender Marketing Not all girls like to play with dolls. What’s a race car girl to do when her favorite toys are marketed towards boys?
Baby Products Under Fire for Ad Claims Consumer News Baby Products Under Fire for Ad Claims Better Sleep? Natural? Baby products are facing suits for false marketing.
Pfizer Prescribed a Truth Pill Consumer News Pfizer Prescribed a Truth Pill Pfizer overstated the benefits and efficiency of a popular antibiotic in a direct-to-consumer advertising campaign.
The Dirty Cats of the Super Bowl Consumer News The Dirty Cats of the Super Bowl These adorable fur balls help sell products, but are the companies free of false or deceptive marketing claims?
Facebook: the Place for Hard-Core Porn & Violence? Consumer News Facebook: the Place for Hard-Core Porn & Violence? If you’re seeing porn or other disturbing imagery on your friend’s Facebook page, you may not want to unfriend him just yet. But you will want to avoid clicking on…
Do Not Call Registry: There’s an App for That! Consumer News Do Not Call Registry: There’s an App for That! PrivacyStar is an app created for Android and Blackberry smart phones that provides privacy features such as call-blocking, caller lookup/ID services and the like.
Internet Scams: Avoiding Fraud on the World Wide Web Consumer News Internet Scams: Avoiding Fraud on the World Wide Web Over 200 million people in the U.S. are now Internet users. Many of our daily activities – reading the news, watching movies, paying bills, buying products, and even catching up…
Pay to Work? Be Wary of This Data Entry Job Ad Alert Pay to Work? Be Wary of This Data Entry Job This e-mail links to a site that asks you to pay for a data entry job. Any service that cares more about getting your money than getting the best-qualified applicants…
E-mail Alert: Does Ghana Have $8 million to Give You? Ad Alert E-mail Alert: Does Ghana Have $8 million to Give You? Sorry, the Vice President of Ghana doesn’t really want to give you $8 million out of the blue. The tip-offs? Poor grammar, request for nonsensical “RED SEALED stamp fee” of…
A .org Does not a Non-Profit Make Blog A .org Does not a Non-Profit Make Change.org, among other sites, has turned me into what some might call a charity slacktivist. Over the past year or so, from the comfort of my own couch, I’ve signed…
Are Apple’s Ads about Siri Misleading? Consumer News Are Apple’s Ads about Siri Misleading? A lawsuit filed against Apple claims that the company “. . . has conveyed the misleading and deceptive message that the iPhone 4S’s Siri feature, a so-called voice-activated assistant…
APR? HECM? KNOW YOUR FINANCING Consumer News APR? HECM? KNOW YOUR FINANCING Perhaps no segment of our economy is more confusing to the normal, everyday consumer than financial services. Whether it’s the lingo, such as Annual percentage rate; the amount of interest…
The Ups and Downs of Day Trading Consumer News The Ups and Downs of Day Trading Day trading opportunities seize upon the excitement of the stock market to capture the imagination of people who find the idea of working for themselves and making their own fortune…
The Fine Print – Read It Consumer Basics The Fine Print – Read It What the ad giveth, the fine print is not supposed to taketh away.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau Consumer Basics The Interactive Advertising Bureau The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an organization of online advertising businesses. Since its inception in 1996, the IAB has developed guidelines, standards, and best practices for the online advertising…