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What to Know about Negative-Option Offers

Consumer Basics

What to Know about Negative-Option Offers

Risk free trials may lead to repeated, unwanted charges to your credit card.

What to Know about Sponsored Content

Consumer Basics

What to Know about Sponsored Content

It’s getting harder to distinguish advertisements from objective content.

Does Size Really Matter? A Primer on Slack-Filled Packaging

Consumer Basics

Does Size Really Matter? A Primer on Slack-Filled Packaging

What to know about the FDA’s rule on under-filled or slack-filled packaging.

Product Placement

Consumer Basics

Product Placement

Products that pop up in movies and television shows are often there for specific advertising reasons.

Puffery – A Marketer’s Right To Lie

Consumer Basics

Puffery – A Marketer’s Right To Lie

Ads can legally lie to you as long as the lie is so obvious an exaggeration that you know not to take it seriously.

Deceptive Marketing 101: Recyclable Claims

Consumer Basics

Deceptive Marketing 101: Recyclable Claims

How products marketed as “recyclable” end up in landfills.

Truth is Not Always a Defense

Consumer Basics

Truth is Not Always a Defense

The truth is bigger than the sum of an ad’s parts.

Sweepstakes & Prizes

Consumer Basics

Sweepstakes & Prizes

Sweepstakes and lotteries may be scams in disguise.

Free Doesn’t Usually Mean Free

Consumer Basics

Free Doesn’t Usually Mean Free

There’s lots of strings attached to offers of free products and services.

Service Contracts and Extended Warranties

Resources

Service Contracts and Extended Warranties

Is it worth it to pay extra for that extended warranty?

Infomercials

Resources

Infomercials

What to know before you bite on that revolutionary infomercial product.

The First Amendment and Commercial Speech

Consumer Basics

The First Amendment and Commercial Speech

When the government can restrict commercial speech.

Engagement Marketing

Consumer Basics

Engagement Marketing

How companies get us to engage and form a relationship with the brand or product they are selling.

FDA Registered, Cleared, Approved: What’s the Difference?

Consumer Basics

FDA Registered, Cleared, Approved: What’s the Difference?

Medical devices like to tout their status with the FDA. But what’s behind these terms?

Small Claims Court

Consumer Basics

Small Claims Court

Duped by a false ad? You might consider filing a lawsuit in Small Claims Court.

Is That Ad Deceptive?

Consumer Basics

Is That Ad Deceptive?

A three-part test can help answer that question.

Federal Trade Commission

Consumer Basics

Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which was created in 1914, is a federal agency that is tasked with promoting consumer protection. One of the central ways it does this is…

Motion Picture Association of America

Consumer Basics

Motion Picture Association of America

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is a trade association comprised of six well-known Hollywood studios – Walt Disney, Sony, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Brothers. Like…

U.S. Department of the Interior

Consumer Basics

U.S. Department of the Interior

The Department of Interior (DOI), established in 1849, is the federal department responsible for protecting the country’s natural resources and cultural heritage.

The Subliminal Ad

Consumer Basics

The Subliminal Ad

Was that an ad that flashed by?

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What to Know about Negative-Option Offers

What to Know about Sponsored Content

Does Size Really Matter? A Primer on Slack-Filled Packaging

Product Placement

Puffery – A Marketer’s Right To Lie

Deceptive Marketing 101: Recyclable Claims

Truth is Not Always a Defense

Sweepstakes & Prizes

Free Doesn’t Usually Mean Free

Service Contracts and Extended Warranties

Infomercials

The First Amendment and Commercial Speech

Engagement Marketing

FDA Registered, Cleared, Approved: What’s the Difference?

Small Claims Court

Is That Ad Deceptive?

Federal Trade Commission

Motion Picture Association of America

U.S. Department of the Interior

The Subliminal Ad