“2008: the year of the skeptical consumer”

This is how Advertising Standards Canada describes 2008. Advertising Standards Canada is an agency which is responsible for regulating advertising. They concluded that there was an increase in misleading ads over the years 2006 and 2007. This evolution was followed by an increase in consumer suspicion. There are 2 different sorts of suspicion. The first one is healthy suspicion, where consumers will scrutinize ads more carefully. The other one is a more problematic form of suspicion, which is called defensive suspicion. Studies show us that consumers who feel misled by an ad become not only suspicious of ads of the same advertiser, but also of similar ads of other advertisers. The consumer will see all marketeers as being the same. To solve this problem there is a need for advertising regulation (corrective advertising) to ensure fair competition which will hopefully increase consumer confidence.
source

Lynn De Winter

Car designers against the law

Car designers aren't very particular with the law with regard to environment and advertising. They want to promote their product by involving the environment in their publicity. Car designers are obliged to inform their consumers about the fuel consumption and the CO2-emission of the car, they don't always do this legal.

Mostly, this information is impossible to read. Normally 20 per cent of the car publicity must be reserved for these details. This is mentionned in the European directive. It's a very important rule for the European Union. To observe this rule you can always lodge a complaint against it.

Emmy D'Haeye

Is it smart to apply with an incorrect CV?

“No less than 70% of applicants write lies in their Curriculum Vitae”, that is the conclusion of an investigation by Hirescores.com. This ameliorating publicity is a kind of corrective advertising for yourself: applicants give wrong information to their (future) employer. They want to camouflage their flaws to get the job. Despite the fact that they have a lot of working experience, some applicants lie about it because they fear more qualified candidates.
However, people, who apply with a misleading application letter, have to bear in mind that this can have disagreeable consequences. If it is revealed, the applicant will immediately get the sack.

People who want some information concerning the writing of a good CV, go to the following link for some tips. http://www.tiptopjob.com/displaycontent/sectionid/15/contentid/56_how_do_i_write_a_good_cv

Maggelien De Smul

Source : http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=JOBAT_1939
Picture : http://www.exclusivecvs.com/Images/writing%201.jpg

Yaz, the super birth control pill ?

Yaz is the best selling birth control pill in the United States. Bayer brought Yaz on the market with ads that promised women much more than a reliable form of contraception. Yaz could cure pimples and premenstrual syndrome. The FDA and the attorneys generals of 27 states found that the ads for Yaz were deceptive. Yaz does not cure acne or premenstrual syndrome and should not be taken just for those two reasons. The FDA punished Bayer for this quite severely. Bayer has to run a new and corrected campaign and for the next six years all  ads for Yaz have to be screened.

Click this link for the deceptive ad : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCg1q0h1PP0



Kirsten Gabrio
article :
http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/pr/article.jsp?content=20080821_144337_22360

Europe can stop misleading ringtone ads

One and a half year ago, the European Commission started its action against misleading advertising of ringtones, wallpapers and mobile phone services on the internet. The commission scrutinized 554 websites of the 27 European Union countries, Norway and Iceland. The investigation was a big success. At least 301 websites gave evidence of intrusion on the EU-consumer’s laws. The websites showed signs of unclear prices, dubious information and misleading advertising in general. In total, 54 websites were closed completely, 159 ones were corrected and the other 70% were cleared out. In Belgium, 18 out of the 28 websites breached the consumers’ laws. The European Commission also fined 9 societies for a total of 2 million euros.
European Consumer Protection Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, said he is satisfied that the action against misleading ringtone advertisements was such a success.

Maggelien De Smul
Source : http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20091117_044&word=misleidende+reclame
Picture : http://www.technologygear.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/ringtones.jpg

'Volt'

‘Volt’ is a Belgian television programme on national television which is presented by Kobe Ilsen and Martine Tanghe. Each week Kobe chooses a random television commercial to test whether this advertisement lives up to the expectations it creates. This way he helps consumers to make a difference between false and true information. The presenter repeats the whole commercial to the letter assisted by scientists, professors, test subjects (the consumers themselves),…. The conclusion, after watching some tests, is that there are a lot of statements that have nothing to do with the product/service and just play with the emotions of the consumers, hoping that people will use it faster. The ‘Duracell’ commercial is one example of an ad which was tested and where the result was negative.

Lynn De Winter

Watchdog protects private investors

Belgium is in need of a better financial supervision, because privates are easy convinced of risky financial products. Consumer protection is very important that is why watchdog CBFA (Commissie voor het Bank-, financie- en assurantiewezen) will get a lot of extra power. The bank commission will get a right of veto on all financial advertising, so they can keep the banks under control. They will impose specific conditions to the financial institutions and when it is necessary the watchdog will withdraw the products from the market.

There is some talk of an advisory committee to involve the savers in their own protection.

Emmy D'Haeye