Laura Arredondo-Santisteban*

Firm/Organization: Venable LLP
Blogs: All About Advertising Law

Latest Articles

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced this week that Kind LLC may label its snack bars as “healthy,” sort of. In 2015, the FDA warned Kind that several of its products were misbranded as “healthy,” and that such labeling falsely claimed that the snacks were low-fat or rich in anti-oxidants, among other things. The FDA’s letter to Kind threatened regulatory action if this and other alleged violations were not corrected. However, the FDA recently…
It is no surprise that each year more advertisers are turning to bilingual and foreign language advertising to market their products. According to U.S. census data, over 55 million Americans speak a language other than English in the home. Spanish language advertising, in particular, has increased over the years, in response to the growth of the Spanish-speaking audience: Hispanics constituted 17 percent of the nation’s total population and had a current spending power of about…
The FTC, in its finest Valspeak, said “Gag Me With a Spoon” to a marketer’s practice of trying to silence negative reviews through contractual provisions with customers. As user reviews become more and more powerful in driving market share, regulators continue to pay attention.  In this recent action, the FTC filed suit against Florida-based marketers to stop allegedly misleading weight loss claims. What makes this FTC complaint stand out from other…
No, PETA will not be in an uproar.  But if you certify Green claims or use someone else’s certification on your products you may want to continue reading. In the past we have noted that third-party certifications and endorsements relating to environmental or “green” attributes are heavily scrutinized by the FTC as more “green” products continue to hit the market. Last year, we wrote about the FTC taking action against a plastic lumber marketer and…
In yet another sign that the FTC is serious about enforcing its now not-so-new Testimonial and Endorsement guides, the agency just reached a settlement with Machinima over an influencers’ campaign designed to promote Microsoft’s Xbox One and several game titles for the console.  And, on a related note, if your company doesn’t already have policies in place for social media marketing campaigns, put this blog down now (well, close the screen) and start putting…
The crowdfunding world got a bit more crowded this week–from a legal perspective, at least–when the Federal Trade Commission entered the fray with its first crowdfunding case against a project creator and his allegedly deceptive Kickstarter® Campaign.  The FTC announced Monday on its website that it took action under Section 5 of the FTC Act against Forking Path, Co. and Erik Chevalier, alleging that Chevalier had promised to produce a board game called “The…
Few words in the advertiser’s dictionary have the alluring effect of “New.”  It jumps off the shelf (or out of the web browser) at the consumer and hints that something exciting, innovative, and maybe even trendsetting can be discovered just by reading further, learning more, clicking here, or calling now.  That’s why the NAD’s decision earlier this week recommending that Sprint abandon its ubiquitous “America’s Newest Network” slogan got us thinking that perhaps a refresher…
The Better Business Bureau (BBB), known for being the home of NAD, CARU and other advertising self-regulatory forums, is now also the proud owner of an updated advertising code.  The BBB announced earlier this month significant updates to its Code of Advertising for the first time since 1985 (when the number one single was “Careless Whisper” by Wham.) In a press release, the BBB indicated that changes to the Code were made “to…
It seems as if every few weeks, a new court decision weighs in on how to interpret the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), especially the meaning of “automatic telephone dialing system” (“autodialer”) and “called party.”  Trade associations and telemarketers have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) for clarification, hoping to reduce the compliance burden and prevent lawsuits from aggressive plaintiff’s attorneys (See TCPA Update for recent filings).  Now, fourteen United States Senators…
Kids say the darndest things, and California wants to make sure that when it comes to their online postings those kids get a do-over.  On January 2015, California law SB 568 entitled “Privacy Rights for California Minors in the Digital World” will go into effect, allowing minors to remove certain posted online content as well as restricting certain types of online advertising directed to minors. We have previously discussed California (see posts) and…