The FTC is considering more stringent requirements for celebrity endorsements. Such as requiring that the celebrity has come into contact with the product he or she is endorsing. Maybe someone would have to watch Paris Hilton actually eat a Carl’s Jr. hamburger before making out the check.

“Obviously it’s going be a little less attractive if a lot more disclosure” [is enforced], said Mindy Gale, president of The Gale Group, a New York ad agency that works on fashion accounts. “When you do a deal with a celebrity there’s an expectation marketers have, and they depend on that blurry area.”

I used to know a woman who was in ads for a weight-loss program—I want to say NutriSystem? She was standing in one leg of her old fat pants, triumphantly thin. Now she probably was on NutriSystem (or whatever), and I’m not saying the company was acting in bad faith. I’m sure it said “Results not typical” on the ad and everything. But I know for a fact that woman lost weight by doing massive amounts of illegal drugs, mostly in tiny speedy little pill form. And I’ve already told the story about the infomercial where “before” and “after” were filmed on the same day. The moral of the story? “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

Okay, maybe that’s not the moral. But it’s a good movie.

Posted by mo pie

Filed under: Advertising