Insights

With so many folks in need, and so many businesses rising to the occasion to help, we see more and more brands focus on offerings that also create a donation opportunity to a charitable organization.

The pitch process can be a swamp of legal ambiguity. Pitches are based on ideas, and it’s hard to protect ideas. In a real-life example, Betty, Inc. sued PepsiCo in the Southern District of New York, for copyright infringement claiming that Pepsi took ideas from a concept pitched by Betty in 2014 (but rejected).

It seems that holiday season starts earlier and earlier every year. Christmas candy in the aisle before the pumpkins are off our porches. Tinsel everywhere before we can even say “pass the turkey”. It’s a perfect time for influencers and marketers to make sure they’re following FTC rules.

In my last blog, I wrote about the crucial role a legal resource can play in a company’s rebranding efforts. This post accompanies that post as I explore a little more about how legal can assist in a smooth rebrand transition.

As an attorney working with creative clients, I am a huge proponent of having legal involved in the creative process. Whether it’s at the brainstorm session or at the pitch, a lawyer can provide a completely new perspective on a creative problem or solution, help identify risk, and ensure legal compliance in a creative campaign.

Not exactly the way the well-known phrase goes of course but that seems to be what’s going on in the world of privacy regulation.

Game. On. Nevada joins California in enacting its own privacy statute to protect consumer data.

It’s high time for CBD advertising regulation according to the FDA and FTC. The agencies sent letters to three companies -Nutra Pure LLC, PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. and Advanced Spine and Pain, LLC – who sell and advertise products containing cannabidiol (“CBD”).

As the song from Annie goes, “You’re never fully dressed without a smile.” But one company wasn’t smiling so much this week when a California federal court granted an injunction against them for using a competitor’s hashtag in social media posts.

What is substantiation? It’s not what we do the day after we have ice cream sundaes for dinner (that’s rationalization). It’s what advertisers should do every time they make a claim about a product or service.

ROSCA is the Restore Online Consumer Confidence Act. It’s the rule under the FTC that regulates negative option offers. You know those offers, they go something like this.

There are lots of scary headlines lately but this one may be the scariest yet: Here Comes Generation Alpha. The name is what it implies – move over Millennials, Alphas are the new, well, alphas, when it comes to who is making household purchasing decisions.

If we were waiting to see what effects the General Data Protection Regulation, fondly known by now as the GDPR, would have on US based companies, we have clues. Another 56.8 million of them – the amount of the fine against Google for non-compliance with the consent requirements of the GDPR.

While February is the shortest month (and for us Richmonders, the one with the strangest weather), it was not without an abundance of advertising law updates and headlines. In this post, I summarized my top Five for February.

In Part I of Alphabet Soup, I outlined the online advertising self-regulatory framework. In Part II, I focus on the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (“ASRC”).

Everyone is familiar with the Federal Trade Commission which is the main federal body regulating and enforcing advertising laws. But in addition to federal regs, the advertising industry has a robust and complex self- regulatory framework. This framework provides voluntary guidelines and best practices for all aspects of the advertising industry.

Beware, parents – while smart toys may have lots of appeal, they may not be safe. Internet connected toys are often equipped with cameras, sensors, tracking capability, and more.