Adverts That Lie

Following on from the ‘Adverts Works…‘ post yesterday, what about those that don’t? 

Adverts exist to sell (sorry marketers: to convey your brands inherent values and benefits blah blah), but do we all accept a certain ‘misrepresentation’ in our adverts?

Announced today, two toothpaste makers, Colgate Palmolive and GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Sensodyne, have been forced to retract their current advertising campaigns by the Advertising Standards Authority because they were lying about being recommended by dentists.

It’s like those ‘anti-aging’ creams you see on the TV – if you’re astute enough you can see the little line saying ‘tested on 104 women’. Only 104?  Maybe a better strategy would be to get your product/service kicking ass and then  you don’t have to worry about masking the shortcomings with ‘clever’ advertising?

Guardian story link