Does Truth In Advertising Still Apply To User Generated Ads?
from the legal-permutations dept
From a purely academic standpoint, it really is fun to see how modern technology is making life difficult for those who rely on old and potentially obsolete laws. However, the decisions made concerning these laws may have a pretty wide impact. We've discussed in the past the pitfalls of asking fans to create "user-generated" ads, but a new lawsuit raises a very interesting legal question. If you ask people to make their own ads for your product, how do truth in advertising laws apply? It's probably not much of an issue if fans are simply going out and creating an ad for fun on their own -- but what if you encourage it? Plenty of big name brands have been setting up contests, getting people to create commercials for them. Yet, when sub shop chain Quiznos did that, competitor Subway sued them, claiming that many of the ads made exaggerated in false claims about Subway's sandwiches. Quiznos, for its part, claims that thanks to the safe harbors of the Communications Decency Act, it's not liable for the content created by the participants in the contest. Subway, on the other hand, argues that by encouraging such actions with a contest, Quiznos has overstepped the boundary, and violated its trademarks. While you can see the reasoning behind Subway's argument, it's hard not to side with Quiznos on this one. No one is going to take most of the user-generated ads seriously -- knowing that they're designed to poke fun at Subway. Also, any attempt to expand "truth in advertising" type rules to fan-created ads is going to cause all sorts of unnecessary problems. Still, when politicians were first writing up trademark laws and truth-in-advertising laws, I'd imagine the possibility of user-generated advertisements never even crossed their minds.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: advertising, safe harbors, truth in advertising, user generated content
Companies: quiznos, subway
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Heh
because it's good to us.
We love the suit.
I forgot the rest ... something about being crunchy
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I usually agree, but ...
No one is going to take most of the user-generated ads seriously -- knowing that they're designed to poke fun at Subway. Also, any attempt to expand "truth in advertising" type rules to fan-created ads is going to cause all sorts of unnecessary problems.
You're assuming that everyone is going to know that the ads are user-generated, and making an even further assumption that they'll know the ads were designed to poke fun at Subway. IMO, those are tenuous assumptions. The average viewer won't automatically know this when the ad appears on tv.
In regards to the second statement, as soon as Quiznos took an active role in using the ads then they became a party to the act. Quiznos did this in two ways - they put the content up on their website instead of letting users upload it to their website or YouTube, and they used the winning ad in a TV commercial. Once Quiznos took an active role, it doesn't matter who made the ad because Quiznos used it. Using your logic, one could make the same arguments about truth in advertising when it comes to using ad companies. After all, Quiznos only encouraged the ad company (in the form of money) to make a commercial for them.
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How do you draw the line?
"No one is going to take most of the user-generated ads seriously"
I can't help but feel that you are crediting the ad-viewing public with more intelligence than they may actually have.
I'mnot saying Subway is 100% right, just that it's a tricky one to call.
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laws should apply equally to all
I think you have it backwards. No one is trying to "expand" these laws, the laws do not specifically apply only to "professional" ads only. Quiznos (or whoever) should be checking these ads for accuracy, obscenities, libelous statements, etc. before posting them.
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Re-write the law
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Re: Re-write the law
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Re: Re-write the law
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Hahah what a joke!
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Sponsorship
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Quiznos Dropped the Ball Here
But thats kind of regardless anyway, as the final point is that it is a Quiznos commercial. Regardless of who actually did the work to make it, Quiznos used it as part of their advertising campaign and thus accepted responsibility for its content. If the material is in violation, so is Quiznos.
That would be like Ford asking me to personally design a car in my free time, them taking my model and mass producing it and then claiming no responsibility for all the resulting deaths that would ensue (I don't know how to design a car) cause I wasn't part of their company.
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Two bits
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Two bits
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Direction
Then they say "sorry, but we're not responsible for user-generated content"??
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Quiznos
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The best way yet to measure the implosion of the T
http://blog.pmarca.com/2008/01/the-best-way-ye.html
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Quiznos isn't responsible for ALL submissions but they ARE responsible for any false claims in the ones that they chose to show!
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Truth in advertising?
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The new distributed viral
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