ABSTRACT
Advertising, like all industries, operates within a legal context. Thorson and Rodgers’ Figure 1.1 in Chapter 1 notes the importance of this context, given the potential effects of advertising on society. Of course, no business is immune from at least some regulatory concerns, such as licenses, permits, hiring restrictions, and taxation. But in addition to the normal issues that affect virtually every other business, advertising is subject to its own unique set of issues, like deception, unfairness to children, promoting unhealthy products, etc. In fact, each advertised product could carry its own unique regulatory concerns. Dog food, for example, is subject to restrictions by the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at the federal level, in addition to several state agencies. It is subject to several specific laws like the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Acts, the FTC Act, the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, and many more. And, of course, media are subject to varied regulations as well so putting that dog food ad on television may be quite different from putting it on a billboard. Simply put, advertising is a heavily regulated industry. Indeed, it is the most regulated of all the communication industries. Given that reality, any attempt at understanding advertising or how it works can be foolhardy if its legal environment is ignored. Imagine, for example, an advertising agency’s researchers conducting a study for a client, resulting in a list of recommendations for that client, and those recommendations turn out to be illegal. Researchers ignore the legal context at their own peril. As we consider the role of theory in advertising in this chapter, it is equally foolish to forget the law’s role in theory.
