Law Commons^™

Holding Media Responsible For Deceptive Weight-Loss Advertising, Chester S. Galloway, Herbert Jack Rotfeld, Jef I. Richards

West Virginia Law Review

In Fall 2002, the Federal Trade Commission held a Workshop exploring the problem of misleading weight-loss promotional pitches. After the agency spent decades cleaning up deceptive advertising, the weight-loss industry continues to be replete with such tactics. In an attempt to more aggressively attack those deceptions, the FTC used the Workshop as a forum to suggest that media should play a more active role in screening ads for diet products and programs. Some saw this as an implied threat that the agency may begin holding media liable for publishing those ads. Media protest that this forces them into the de …