BBB National Programs Blog

The monthly Ad Watchers podcast provides listeners with behind-the-scenes access to the nitty-gritty of advertising law. Why? Because advertising law is simple, it’s the execution that’s hard.  Learn more about Season One and what topics are coming up for Season Two.

Breakfast cereal demand has been on the rise as the COVID pandemic has advanced. People ate at home and did not want to venture out to the grocery store as often, which meant that they turned to easily stored staples, like cereals. Whether or not this trend continues, there will always be people of all ages who will choose to start their day with a bowl of cereal. So, pour yourself a bowl, grab a spoon, and join the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) to observe National Cereal Day.

What can businesses do to stay out of trouble when making health and wellness claims? It is all about understanding what claims you are making and how to support those claims. To mitigate the risk of an unsupported health-related claim, businesses and nonprofits should avoid making any claims that they cannot support with the appropriate level of scientific evidence.

While only about one percent of all new cars purchased in the United States in any given year experience a problem that cannot be fixed, there are occasions when a vehicle might be defective enough to be called a “lemon.” What should you do if, unfortunately, you get stuck with one of the lemons?

As Google and other platforms face mounting pressure to build trust in the face of daily news reports about advertising scams and misinformation, a solid step they can take is to support the advertising industry’s established and trusted system of self-regulation. Most platforms have advertising policies that prohibit misleading advertising, so it would make sense that the platforms would support independent self-regulatory review of advertising claims with direct reporting channels for advertising found to be misleading.

Almost 20% of all NAD challenges in 2021 were brought through NAD’s Fast-Track SWIFT process. This blog provides an overview of those cases, an overview of Fast-Track SWIFT, and some takeaways from what we saw in 2021.

With copious amounts of content proliferating across a growing number of platforms and websites, it is an ongoing challenge for advertisers and platforms to ensure that digital ads are not placed next to harmful content. In this conversation, there is a key distinction few are making — the difference between ‘self-regulation’ and ‘independent, industry-wide self-regulation.’

In December, BBB National Programs staff attended the Attorney General hearings on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This blog captures our top 5 takeaways from that hearing.

BBB National Programs has released the CFBAI and CCAI 2020 Annual Report, which includes findings on CFBAI and CCAI participant compliance with their commitment to advertise only foods that meet CFBAI’s strict Uniform Nutrition Criteria or to not engage in advertising primarily directed to children under age 12. The Report indicates excellent compliance by the 19 CFBAI participants and the eight CCAI participants in 2020.

If you have ever purchased or leased a car or SUV that you consider a lemon, you may have questions about the myriad of federal and state laws that govern your vehicle and the remedies available to you. Each state also has their own statute governing vehicles sold and leased in that state for personal use. Today, we look at the lemon law in Florida, one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S.