Fraudulent Advertising

             Nowadays television and the advertising displayed in it is a part of everyday life in most households. What many people do not know is that television in many ways is bad. Numerous articles have been written on this. Many surveys and books have been written on this subject as well. The ads in television are what are especially bad. Some television ads are misleading. .

             Countless articles have been written on false advertising on television. Most of these articles target specific instances of fraudulent behavior, but some do address the television industry as a whole. These articles for the most part seem to be complaining about politicians (more so than the advertisers themselves) and the fact that "it is not politically palatable"(Miller) to make more stringent laws against fraudulent advertising. This means that politicians are not willing to make stricter laws for fear that they might come back to haunt them later. It is that topic that seemed to come up most in articles on false advertising.

             Surveys have also been conducted to tell the amounts of "fraudulent" ads being seen on television and how they fluctuate from year to year. In the past ten years television ads which make fraudulent claims have "gone down significantly"(miller). This is in part due to several new laws which have been established. It is doubtful however that much more stringent laws will be put in place in the near future. This is mostly due to political stubbornness. .

             Many books have also been written on advertising in general. About three quarters of these books include sections on false advertising (generally large ones), the steps taken in preventing it, and how much of it you see every day. I think John Lahr put it best when he said "Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising.". What he meant in my opinion was that advertising is simply meant to tease and really has little bearing on real life (other than to sell the product).

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