LAW 826SEM - Advertising & the Law

All of us encounter advertising every day, and we have been doing so for almost all of our lives. Companies spend billions of dollars each year to market their products to us; a 30-second ad airing during this year’s Super Bowl will cost up to $4 million. In short, advertising is one of the most important cultural and economic forces in American life. Given these stakes, it is not surprising that there are entire areas of legal practice devoted solely to the regulation of advertising. Nevertheless, only recently have law schools begun to pay attention to the specifics of advertising law. This seminar helps fix that. In this class, we will address the legal protections for advertising and their public policy ramifications. What are the rules for actionable false advertising and how does the law protect advertising content? Is advertising a useful source of information or an intrusion on our privacy? Should the law protect consumers from misleading advertising? How do we perceive advertising? What techniques do advertisers use to sell their products? Should these techniques, even if not false or misleading, be restricted by the government? As part of the course, each student will write a research paper on a topic related to these issues.

Credits: 3