THIRD EXAM:
Testimonials and Endorsements
Gower, pp. 44-45
- How does the FTC define endorsements/testimonials?
What are the rules regarding endorsements by typical consumers and by celebrities/experts?
Spence: Ch. 6
- Read the case studies.
- Explain whether Sony's defense was really a defense based on ethics. Were Sony's actions in violation of the FTC's guidelines for using testimonials?
- What is the objective of celebrity endorsements?
- What is an endorsement?
- An endorser provides what?
- Understand the four types of endorsers.
- What is the critical factor in the use of endorsements? What does that factor rest upon?
- What is meant by independence? What does it not mean?
- Payments undercut the credibility of which categories of endorsers?
- What is the fundamental ethical problem with endorsements in advertising? What two opposing principles are in conflict?
FTC GUIDES CONCERNING USE OF
ENDORSEMENTS AND TESTIMONIALS IN ADVERTISING
- (Be familiar with the examples given throughout the guides.)
- What is the FTC definition of endorsements/testimonials?
- What is the FTC definition of expert?
- Endorsements must always reflect what?
- Is the endorser allowed to make claims about the product that the advertiser could not?
- How long may an advertiser use the endorsement of an expert or celebrity? How may the advertiser satisfy that obligation?
- When an advertisement represents that the endorser uses the endorsed product, the endorser must have been what?
- An advertisement employing an endorsement reflecting the experience of an individual or a group of consumers on a central or key attribute of the product or service will be interpreted as what?
- Advertisements presenting endorsements by people represented, directly or by implication, to be "actual consumers" should use what or do what instead?
- Why is the mere disclosure that "not all consumers will get this result" insufficient?
- When an advertisement represents, directly or by implication, that the endorser is an expert with respect to the endorsement message, then the endorser's qualifications must do what?
- An expert's endorsement must be supported by what?
- An organization's endorsement must be reached by what?
- When must the connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product be fully disclosed?
- What is the given example of a connection ordinarily expected by viewers?
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