The protection of consumer against deceptive television commercials

Advertisement may be defined as a presentation activity that is made inreturn for a charge. The purpose of an advertisement is to create positiveopinions about the advertised product or service and to direct the customersto perform the purchasing behavior, by drawing the attention of potentialcustomers. The importance of advertisement, which is intended for reachingand persuading customers, has grown in parallel with the growingcompetition in the market.The most effective means of advertisement is the television, which is anaudio-visual method of mass communication. The reason for the companies,whose products are advertised, and for the advertisers to prefer television isthat it provides the possibility of addressing millions of people simultaneouslyand that it is accepted as the most preferred means of entertainment.However, some of the advertisers, advertisement agencies andbroadcasting institutions have a tendency to produce misleadingadvertisements which threaten the customer health and security, as it isforbidden for some of the products and services to be advertised on TV; asthe advertisers and advertisement agencies do not want to pay theadvertisement share and related taxes to Higher Board of Radio andTelevision (RTÜK), in return for television broadcasts of their products andservices; and for reasons like the low rate of reliability and watching. Suchmisleading advertisements, which benefit from customers? lack of knowledgeand naiveté, cause unfair competition and pose illegal results.Misleading advertisements, which are classified as cheatingadvertisements, hidden advertisements and sub-conscience advertisements,are made in order to direct customers to the products and services, bymeans of giving incorrect information on the product specifications andqualities; hiding important details; using exaggerated and deceivingexpressions; providing special and attention drawing opportunities for theproducts and services in non-commercial programs and using techniques toaffect the sub-conscience. These advertisements should be kept underinspection to ensure that customers are protected from such advertisementsthat contradict with the related legal provisions.There are four methods that apply for the conformity of theadvertisements with the laws. Self control, special law cases andadministrative inspection methods are used in Turkey. Self control is carriedout by the Advertisement Inspection Board while the administrativeinspections are carried out by the Higher Board of Radio and Television andthe Board of Advertisements. Customers and rival companies may apply forspecial law suits in case they demand any compensation for the lossesresulting from misleading advertisements. However, as long as theycooperate, they may get the desired result, related with the protection ofcustomers from the advertisements. The most important point of all is toensure that customers are made aware of self control and all other methods.