quick radio contest question

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:54:22 -0500, Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com> said:

> Mike Coleman-- the guy is one of the best production 
> directors.  Actually, radio PDs and even some GMs have been begging 
> the FCC for years to get rid of those long disclaimers-- you also 
> hear them on car ads which have some motormouth explaining the terms 
> and conditions for getting the special rates, but you can't 
> understand a word the person is saying...  For whatever reason, the 
> FCC has never moved on putting an end to the long list of whatevers 
> and caveats-- I wish they would because it sounds awful.

They'd be begging the wrong agency if they were begging the FCC.  This
(particularly the intentionally-deceptive car ads) is all FTC
territory.  If it were up to me, I'd require all advertising to make
any required disclaimers[1] to be made at the same time and manner as
whatever is being disclaimed.  Of course, the advertising industry
would be up in arms over being forced to stop trying to deceive
customers.  The FDA is better (but of course only has jurisdiction
over that subset of drugs which are subject to licensing), and there
are probably some magazines being propped up by the revenue from those
double-page ads.

The FCC is the agency responsible for "The following is a commercial
message" followed by a different kind of deceptive ad, the sort that
are made to sound like an actual radio interview or news broadcast.

FWIW, I'm more than a little burnt out on Coleman.

-GAWollman

[1] Particularly the sleazy ones that say things like "ALL #{X} ON
SALE" and then the barely-intelligible disclaimer says, in effect,
"excludes every #{X} anyone would ever buy; sale claims based on
prices which nobody ever pays at our store or anywhere else".