"Make In INDIA" or "Fake In INDIA"

We are dumb. We don't know any facts. Do We?

One telecom company is saying "We are the fastest", one cosmetic brand is saying "using this will reverse your aging", the story of these kinds of false claims doesn't stop here. Television is full of these kind of imprecise advertisements. While coming into this business field, the foremost thing we are being told is "PROFIT", but was that at the cost of someone's health, never. Now-a-days companies are doing these distasteful actions, and we have a whole list of that-

 

These are just some among the heap. We are seeing famous bollywood celebrities doing the ads of hair oil (basically mineral oil) and saying that’s the secret of their black, thick, long and shiny hair. We again see the same celeb doing the advertisement of some hair coloring stuff, what are they trying to do , how could they convince us , on one side they are saying that they have lustourous hair because they use that particular oil and now they are saying us to buy hair color, sorry celebs but I’m completely handicapped in finding out your logic behind this.

Beauty Care brand “Lotus Herbals” has it’s one product named YOUTHRx  which contains “Gineplex Youth Compound” , it can reverse your aging 10% in just 4 weeks, ad of this is done by bollywood celeb Shilpa Shetty Kundra. So, is this ethical to claim that a person is going to get back his/her youth skin back? Same happened with “Dabur Chyawanprash”, it’s ad claimed that it gave children 3x more immunity and power to fight diseases. It was slammed by ASCI for making claims that are unsubstantiated. Health drink brand named ‘Horlicks’ which claims to make children taller, stronger and sharper. A complaint was filed against the brand for one of it’s ads saying that it improves concentration and can help students to score better in exams. The complaint stated that the drink has nothing by which they can prove their statement. The company is basically using people’s apprehensions by targeting the exam season.

What Is Ethical Advertising?

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission defines ethical advertising as truthful, not deceptive, is backed by evidence, and fair. The FTC requires that advertisers follow those four requirements, so that they can state that they promote truth in advertising. The concept of a “reasonable consumer” is used when determining the perspective from which the FTC decides whether an advertisement fulfills these requirements or not..

Unethical advertising typically isn’t considered a crime and is more of a moral issue than a legal one. However, there are situations where the advertisement goes to the extreme. In this case, the advertisement willfully deceives the audience into buying the product being advertised. In such cases, the state or federal consumer protection departments could potentially prosecute the advertiser. Many states have a law that allows consumers to file complaints leveled against businesses that advertise their products using unethical advertisements. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission takes of consumer complaints at the federal level. Harsh penalties are assigned to advertisers who are found guilty of unethical advertising practices.

In a nutshell, don’t  toe the line and play on the edge. You might make the public very angry, which will affect your bottom line. On the other hand, you might be risking prosecution, and you might end up paying harsh penalties to the government. Instead, strive to promote the truth in your advertising. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with trying to emphasize the strengths of your service or product. However, whatever you do, do not lie. If you’re going to make a claim about your product or service, make sure you can back up your claim with irrefutable evidence. Also, you should not leave out any vital information that's relevant to why the consumer should consider about buying the product. Leaving out necessary information is committing a lie by omission

 

(Source:-https://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-unethical-ethical-advertising-19262.html )