Those Dirty Advertisers...

Tuesday's discussion had me thinking about writer's ethics, and in particular that of advertisers and those looking to promote a product. While in the past advertisements could blatantly lie and fool people, today more consumers are aware of false advertising claims. Ironically enough, we have created an atmosphere where admitting something negative in an ad can create ethos and believability in the product. For instance, just yesterday I was watching a commercial from what I can "the soup wars." Progresso's commercial said that 90 percent of their soups were MSG free, meaning that the other 10 percent had MSG. They also said they were taking it out of all of these soups. Meanwhile, they accused Campbells of not doing the same. Campbells had a rebuttan commercial trying to lead consumers to believe that their soups didn't have MSG. However, they never gave a percentage breakdown; they merely listed soups without MSG. Thus, I believe Progresso's company has greater ethos and probably soup. Ironic, huh?

Likewise, there is also the legality of false advertising to be concerned with. The drug companies know this well. You will never see a commercial for a drug without side effects listed!