In the modern world one cannot escape from advertising. It is found daily and everywhere. But how often do we think about whether this or that form of product promotion is legal? Our material will talk about the main types of inappropriate advertising.
What is advertising?
One of the means of ensuring competition is an advertising campaign. This is an alert to the audience about the availability of certain goods or services in order to make them famous. In the Russian Federation, advertising is regulated by the federal law of the same name. It says that PR can be bona fide and unscrupulous. The first form of advertising satisfies a number of legal requirements. It is correctly built, does not contain gross errors or violations, is licensed and allowed to display. Unfair advertising, on the contrary, contains unacceptable elements and errors.
For a PR campaign to be fair, the following requirements must be met:
- all information provided is reliable and does not violate the law or moral standards;
- a real-life product or service is advertised;
- The advertisement has been licensed and approved for demonstration.
If at least one of the presented requirements is not taken into account, advertising automatically becomes illegal. About the concept and types of inappropriate advertising will be discussed later.
Advertising Formation
The forms of public relations campaigns can be classified in various ways. It all depends on the object of advertising, its nature, orientation and form. For example, the object of public relations may be a service - a certain type of activity or a product - a product of activity. Advertising can be classic, social, political, cultural or any other. It can be expressed on paper, on the air, on the Internet, on a banner or in any other places. It is only important that it be open and understandable, as well as comply with the law.
An advertising producer forms a public relations campaign. He puts parts of the information in a finished form, due to which an advertisement appears. The public relations distributor sends out the result by any legal means. The advertiser, the direct customer of the information, oversees the whole process. The antimonopoly authority monitors the implementation of public relations campaigns. He stands for fair competition and a transparent market.
Invalid Ads
What methods of PR are considered unacceptable? The relevant federal law gives some of their features:
- someone's dignity, honor or business reputation is defamed;
- the advertisement contains incorrect or incorrect information about the presented product;
- advertising violates antitrust laws - it is an act of unfair competition;
- Prohibited goods or services prohibited for sale.
Advertising is always a call to action. It is aimed at a wide range of faces. Moreover, it is advertising that is the source of the completion of a trade transaction. Underestimate some kind of PR is definitely not worth it. This is a serious information campaign, which should be regulated.
Places for advertising
Information promoting a particular product or service can be placed far from everywhere. The Federal Law "On Advertising" contains a list of places where it is forbidden to distribute advertising information. It is worth highlighting, for example, textbooks and teaching aids. By the way, it is this rule that is violated most often - just look at the last pages of a manual from the famous literary series.Also, the taboo is imposed on advertising in children's literature, on television during important political programs - debates or messages, as well as in medical, educational, sports, sanatorium and other organizations.
Advertisers should consider all of the above points. Otherwise, they will be held liable for inappropriate advertising. This is fraught with job losses or heavy fines.
Invalid Ads
The most common form of inappropriate advertising is the provision of false information. As a rule, the manufacturer is cheating on the benefits of its products. However, this is not so scary when the advertiser claims to be the "best in the market" about the product or service, although in reality this is far from reality.
Inaccurate information may relate to the assortment of goods. For example, an advertisement says that the supply on the market is limited, which increases the influx of customers. In fact, the assortment is in line with the norm, and there are no restrictions. The same applies to product specifications, delivery conditions, warranty, production volume, etc.
You can deal with false advertising by thoroughly analyzing real and reported data. If a major discrepancy is found, then the information receives the status of inaccurate, and therefore inappropriate.
Unethical advertising
The following form of inappropriate advertising is associated with a lack of ethical or moral principles. It violates generally accepted moral principles, casts doubt on morality, and in every way insults or degrades certain groups of people or specific individuals.
Unethical advertising can be directed against certain national or religious groups, against races, professions, age groups, worldviews, etc. The presence of obscene expressions or inappropriate images in an advertisement also makes it unethical.
The unethical form of advertising is the hardest to fight. It is often not so simple to understand whether information offends someone or not. There may be offended persons, although when viewing the material it turns out that there is nothing wrong with it. What to do in such a situation, how to act objectively? After all, an analysis, as in the case of false PR, will fail. The only way out is to find in advertising those elements that are specified in article 5 of the corresponding Federal Law. It should highlight:
- calls for violence or cruelty;
- incitement to commit unlawful acts;
- the formation of negative attitudes towards individuals;
- the presence of pornographic information.
The presence of at least one of the presented signs makes advertising unethical.
False and hidden information
False PR is easily confused with unreliable. These are two similar types of inappropriate advertising, which nevertheless have a number of significant differences. So, false information deliberately misleads the buyer. Moreover, the scale of fraud is noticeably larger than in the case of false PR.
This form of inappropriate advertising, such as false information, has a number of specific features. The advertiser may deceive the buyer about the quality of the product, its purpose, quantity, etc. Moreover, the omission of the harmful or dangerous characteristics inherent in the product is also considered false information.
Thus, if inaccurate advertising is characterized by small errors, then false information is a specific fraud of the buyer.
Another example of inappropriate advertising is a hidden public relations campaign. The main requirement for advertising information specified in the law is openness and publicity. Promotion of a product or service should be noticeable and vibrant. Any attempt to quietly promote an advertisement or hide it somewhere is punishable by law.
Inappropriate Advertising: Responsibility
The sanctions applied for violation of the legislation on advertising are described in Article 38 of the corresponding Federal Law. Responsibility is imposed in accordance with civil law. The fact is that advertisers act as performers, and product manufacturers act as customers. These two persons conclude a civil law contract between themselves, and therefore responsibility is civil in nature.
Conflict resolution over the wrong advertising campaign takes place in arbitration. The plaintiff may demand damages, the amount of lost profits, compensation for non-pecuniary damage or something else. The court carefully studies the features of the case, after which it makes a fair decision.
The law does not establish fixed penalties for inappropriate advertising. The concept of responsibility in this case is too streamlined. It's all about the object itself - the information product. It can be too different, and therefore its regulation is very difficult. It is only known that 40% of the paid fine goes to the federal budget, and the remaining 60% to the regional budget.
Consumer protection from false advertising
Consumer protection from unreliable, unethical, false or hidden public relations campaigns is the most important task of advertising legislation. Citizens do not have special knowledge about the product, but under the influence of advertising they give it their preference. In order for the rights or freedoms of a citizen not to be violated, public relations information must be constructed in a special way. So, advertising should be open, understandable, not violating moral standards or the law.
Any citizen has the opportunity to complain about an advertising product that seems to him inappropriate. Special authorities will conduct an examination of the information, after which they will make a fair decision.
