Advertising Regulation

Advertising is a significant tool that can be a cross between success and failure with many organizations. Over the years consumers have been mislead by organizations that failed to comply with regulations and illustrate the organizations true agenda and purpose for obtaining consumers (e.g. meeting a quota demand for the day or the month as dictated by the company or meeting consumer needs), thus leaving consumers with excessively high interest rates and causing them to pay for a service the consumer did not agree to in the first place however due to the fact that the fine print was too small the consumer may have overlooked the most pertinent information. In some cases, consumers were steamrolled by an aggressive, fast-talking sales agent that didn't take "no" for an answer, and the consumer felt persuaded and obligated to enter into an agreement only to find out that the agreement had a lot of stipulations and penalties that were not otherwise explained at the beginning of the sales pitch and/or presentation. For example, an individual begins to research various business opportunities over the Internet, he/she stumbles upon a website that may be the answer to his/her prayers. The individual scrolls down to look for where to sign up for the opportunity, he/she then scrolls down further to the bottom of the screen only to find out that in order to begin he/she must sign up for a trial period of seven days for $14.95, after the trial period is up, his/her credit card will be charged $197.95 every month for the remainder of the year. This advertisement is clearly misleading and may even be fraudulent according to the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC), if there was a payment required, it should have been displayed in the beginning instead of in real small print (i.e. two font). As a result of so many consumers becoming victimized by shady business transactions, the Federal Trade Commission and every public entity that has the consumers best interest at heart decided to implement stricter regulations that enables the consumer to remain in control of their information, their decisions, and their privacy. "The FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection works For The Consumer to prevent fraud, deception, and unfair business practices in the marketplace. The Bureau:

? Enhances consumer confidence by enforcing federal laws that protect consumers.

? Empowers consumers with free information to help them exercise their rights and spot and avoid fraud and deception.

? Wants to hear from consumers who want to get information or file a complaint about fraud or identity theft." (Federal Trade Commission, 2011).

Although the Internet is the gateway for unlocking an individual's entrepreneurial potential, the Internet also opens the door for false advertisement, misrepresentation, and deceptive unethical business practices, in other words, the internet gives new opportunities to scam artists. When in doubt of the legitimacy of any organization consumers are encouraged to conduct research to prevent themselves from being scammed. One real life example comes to mind with this portion of the document is a car dealership several years ago, their objective was to sell cars to consumers with poor, bad, or no credit, they offered good deals for consumers who were struggling to make ends meet.