International Law

Which Industry Makes the Most Misleading Ads?

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"My vote is for the companies that design closets.

The photos in their ads routinely show closets that are drenched in sunlight while the owners of those closets always seem to possess exactly three pairs of (identical and very clean) pants or skirts but not a single accordion, hockey stick, papier-mache dragon, or any of the other stuff that actually lives in closets?"

Ordinarily, I would pass on commenting on this type of fluff. Even if it is Freakonomics.

But, it raises an important problem which I will be blogging more about: the relationship between puffery -lies that are meant to be influence but are not actionable- and misleading representations -lies that are meant to be relied upon and so are actionable.

Actionable means that you bring a lawsuit to recover your losses.

Puffery is an interesting legal concept, which allows a sender of signals to make statements knowing that these statements will turn the head of the receiver, and then to deny legal responsibility for the receiver's head turning.

It is an issue to which we will return over and over again, most purchasers of franchises, business opportunities and other distributorships fail to recognize the puffs that they believe that they can rely on.

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on June 13, 2008 (boomark / email).