FTC v. novartis: The return of corrective advertising?

In June 1996, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a complaint allegin g that unsubstantiated superiority claims were made in advertisements for D oan's analgesic products. In addition, the FTC sought an order against the Novartis Corporation that required corrective advertising in all Dean's adv ertisements and packaging. As a result, FTC v. Novartis was unique because it was the FTC's first litigated corrective advertising care since Warner-L ambert, nearly 25 years ago. The case presented an opportunity for the Comm ission to indicate the types of consumer research needed in six areas: dece ption assessment, materiality analysis, belief measurement, ad-belief linka ge, lingering effects estimation, and remedy calibration. In each of these areas, the FTC presented substantial evidence to support a strong correctiv e advertising remedy. However, although the Commission ordered corrective a dvertising, its weak remedy will inevitably fall far short of correcting co nsumer misbeliefs about Dean's.