20,679 physicians say Lucky Strike [cigarettes] are less irritating. It’s hard to imagine that a claim from a 1930s Lucky Strike ad survived today’s regulatory and class-action environment. Someone would take a shot at the ad: a competitor brand, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), or consumers.
But maybe we haven’t evolved all that much. Here is another number: advertising claim substantiation fails nearly three out of four times. This one is true. Looking at 68 consumer perception surveys deployed by brands and their challengers from 2006 to 2011, 71% were deemed unreliable by the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which offers alternative dispute resolution for advertisers.
The FTC advertising standard, which dates back to … Continue Reading