Overlawyered » advertising http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Food law roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/food-law-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/food-law-roundup-4/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:14:26 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26445
  • NYC health officials, in yet another federally funded food-denunciation ad campaign, Photoshop leg off obese guy to turn him into supposed diabetic amputee [my new Cato post, Radley Balko; more Caroline May/Daily Caller]
  • Are White House advisors reading my posts? Probably not, but deregulation of dairy-farm “oil” spills still gave President an applause line in State of the Union speech [also at Cato]
  • More on L.A. schools’ healthy-lunch debacle [WSJ edit, earlier] It’s an illustration of how promising pilot projects often don’t scale [Megan McArdle] New Penn State study finds no connection between child obesity and availability of “bad” foods at school [NYT, Philly Mag, study via Wajert]
  • “Obesity plateau” of American population should offer chance for calm policy reflection, but probably won’t [Jacob Sullum] “Food Lawsuits Claiming ‘Addiction’ Coming To a Courtroom Near You?” [Lammi, Forbes]
  • Despite lip service to “letting consumers make their own food choices,” Obama won’t legalize raw milk [Obama Foodarama]
  • Coming in April from Tyler Cowen, “An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies” [Amazon, Freakonomics, Food and Drink category of MR, and you can follow Twitter account @AnEconomistGets;
  • "2011 Brought Lots of Good News for Salt Lovers" [Greg Conko, Open Market]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/food-law-roundup-4/feed/ 0     Digitally altered model photos and the proposed “Self Esteem Act” http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/digitally-altered-model-photos-and-the-proposed-self-esteem-act/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/digitally-altered-model-photos-and-the-proposed-self-esteem-act/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:00:22 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25926 A Los Angeles couple have been gaining publicity for their proposal to require publications to disclose with warning labels when pictures of models have been Photoshopped, the better to help the bodily self-esteem of readers who may feel inadequate when contemplating the skinny/curvaceous images or airbrushed complexions. [CBS New York] “After complaints from Liberal Democrat MP Joe Swinson, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority banned two digitally enhanced ads starring prominent celebrities for ‘exaggeration and being misleading.’” [Diana Denza, Betty Confidential; earlier on parallel developments in France as well as Britain]

    Incidentally, I’ve now compiled a long-overdue tag for posts on photography.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/digitally-altered-model-photos-and-the-proposed-self-esteem-act/feed/ 12     Making jobless applicants a new protected class? http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/making-jobless-applicants-a-new-protected-class/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/making-jobless-applicants-a-new-protected-class/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:16:07 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25958 A plaintiff’s-oriented group crusading for such legislation managed to come up with only a relative handful of employer advertisements exhibiting supposed bias against the unemployed. And on scrutiny not all of those ads turned out in fact to be “exclusionary”:

    For example, national recruiter Kelly Services placed the following ad in the St. Louis area: “Currently employed but lacking growth in terms of responsibilities and technical proficiencies? If so, Kelly IT Resources-St. Louis wants to talk to you!” NELP zeroed in on “currently employed,” counted it as discriminatory, and ignored the rest of the posting. Common sense dictates that marketing to the currently employed looking to advance does not signal a rejection of the unemployed.

    [Michael Saltsman, Wall Street Journal, earlier here, etc.]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/making-jobless-applicants-a-new-protected-class/feed/ 2     “EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration” http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/eu-bans-claim-that-water-can-prevent-dehydration/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/eu-bans-claim-that-water-can-prevent-dehydration/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:06:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25756 Beyond satire: “Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month. …NHS health guidelines state clearly that drinking water helps avoid dehydration, and that Britons should drink at least 1.2 litres per day.” [Telegraph] A writer in the Guardian defends the ban.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/eu-bans-claim-that-water-can-prevent-dehydration/feed/ 8     “Passing along” our new tax? Tell it to the judge, mate http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/passing-along-our-new-tax-tell-it-to-the-judge-mate/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/passing-along-our-new-tax-tell-it-to-the-judge-mate/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:17:57 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25745 The official Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is menacing businesses with audits, “substantiation notices” and potentially stiff fines if they tell customers — even over the phone or in emails — that future price hikes on goods or services are the result of the nation’s newly adopted carbon tax. I discuss at Cato at Liberty (& Mark Hemingway, Weekly Standard).

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/passing-along-our-new-tax-tell-it-to-the-judge-mate/feed/ 4     Food law roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/food-law-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/food-law-roundup-3/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 05:09:59 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25351
  • “Wisconsin Judge Rules No Right to Own a Cow or Drink Its Milk” [Food Freedom; related on demonstration at FDA]
  • We’re from the authorities, and we’re shutting down your “farm-to-fork” dinner [Amy Alkon]
  • “FTC Makes Strategic Concessions on Food/Beverage Marketing Guidelines” [Lammi, WLF]
  • Given a little humility, NYT’s Mark Bittman might have noticed that his new junk food insight contradicts his old [Jacob Sullum, Reason]
  • Urban myths about Halloween candy tampering [Free-Range Kids]
  • New Jersey lawsuit over serving of meat to devout Hindu vegetarians [Abnormal Use; compare 1999 case]
  • “First lady will achieve goal of eradicating all food deserts by 2017″ — calm down, that’s “deserts” with just the one “s” [Obama Foodorama, more, more] Premise that lack of access to fresh fruits/vegetables accounts for poor urban diet, however, is sheerest fantasy [Katherine Mangu-Ward/WaPo, earlier here and here]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/food-law-roundup-3/feed/ 8     CSPI suit: Fruit by the Foot promotion left out unfavorable facts http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/cspi-suit-fruit-by-the-foot-promotion-left-out-unfavorable-facts/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/cspi-suit-fruit-by-the-foot-promotion-left-out-unfavorable-facts/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:24:41 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25303 The promotional claims that General Mills makes about its snack product seem to be accurate enough, but the busybody Center for Science in the Public Interest says the company should be calling attention to other, less positive nutritional facts too. Stephen Richer wonders whether dating profiles are going to have to begin listing the candidate’s less appealing qualities. [WLF Legal Pulse]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/cspi-suit-fruit-by-the-foot-promotion-left-out-unfavorable-facts/feed/ 3     “Upset Moviegoer Sues Over ‘Misleading’ Trailer” http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/upset-moviegoer-sues-over-misleading-trailer/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/upset-moviegoer-sues-over-misleading-trailer/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:46:06 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25066 Sarah Deming has sued the distributor of the critically acclaimed Ryan Gosling thriller DRIVE under Michigan’s Consumer Protection Act, saying it was promoted “as very similar to the Fast and Furious, or similar, series of movies” but “bore very little similarity to a chase, or race action film…having very little driving in the motion picture.” The suit aims for class-action status. [Lawyerist, Guardian]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/upset-moviegoer-sues-over-misleading-trailer/feed/ 23     Four Loko agrees to warn of alcohol buzz http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/four-loko-agrees-to-warn-of-alcohol-buzz/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/four-loko-agrees-to-warn-of-alcohol-buzz/#comments Sun, 09 Oct 2011 13:04:41 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25021 Settling a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission, the maker of the drink agrees to warn on its label that it really has quite a lot of alcohol in it and can get you tipsy without having to go back often for refills. As Elie Mystal notes, the “warning” might fit rather nicely into the beverage’s marketing strategy. Scott Greenfield has thought of a parallel case.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/four-loko-agrees-to-warn-of-alcohol-buzz/feed/ 1     Advertising food as “genetically unmodified” http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/advertising-food-as-genetically-unmodified/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/advertising-food-as-genetically-unmodified/#comments Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:00:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24955 The Food and Drug Administration substantially restricts food companies’ freedom to promote their wares as not-genetically-modified, although quite a lot of grocery shoppers are (perhaps misguidedly) interested in making product decisions on that basis. Thom Lambert at Truth on the Market detects the symptoms of regulatory “capture.”

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