posted on January 10, 2003 05:42:33 PM new
Darn! I looked and looked, but I can't find that recent thread where it was mentioned that Nike was being sued for lying to the public and Nike claimed that, as a corporation, it had ever legal right to bald-face lie to consumers. A Californian Supreme Court disagreed.
Since lying is Free Speech, so Nike claims, they are taking it to the US Supreme Court and today, it was announced that they would indeed take a look at it "Supreme Court to Decide Nike Advertising Case "
I recall back in the 1960's when the truth in Labeling and Advertising laws went into effect. That was back when the corporations were wary of acting fraudulently; you know, the Kenndys watching over America and all. Remeber when government was looking out for OUR best interests?
The first chink in breaking these laws IMO is when Pepsi Cola won a court ruling that it did not have to provide a Harrier Jet as advertised to the winning contestant. The reason that it won, the court said, "No 'reasonable' person would expect to win such a prize" [paraphrased]. Baloney. I saw the ads, I know that the laws said that if it was advertised, it had to be true. Therefore, as a reasonable person, I felt that if Pepsi wanted to give away a Harrier Jet to the top winner, that was their business and it was the truth.
Now the inch is going a mile. Will the U.S. Supreme Court strike down the Truth in Advertising Laws, or will they simply weaken the laws so that corporations can bald-faced lie to us on TV and in print and get away with it scott-free?
edited because MS Word Spell Checker doesn't do its job anymore!
[ edited by Borillar on Jan 10, 2003 05:43 PM ]
posted on January 10, 2003 06:05:03 PM new
Yes spell check sucz.
I predict you are correct that the LEAST they will do is weaken them a lot.
The next danger they would see down the road would be some starry eyed fellow sueing them for falsehood in political ads or sueing individual politicians for lies.
How could a government much less a company function if they could not lie?
posted on January 10, 2003 07:57:00 PM new
Yes. Just think: corporations will legally be able to lie to investors and in their SEC filings. Corporations can lie to consumers, using whatever language that they please in order to get consumers to purchase their products. Now that regulations protecting consumers is being rolled back so fast, corporations can just about put rat poison into your soda pop as a flavor and market it to cure cancers!
