Food And Drug Administration (FDA) And The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Over the centuries advertisement has transformed into a multi-billion dollar industry. In the pre-industrial era, the notion of advertisements had a more simplistic nature, as most advertisements were predominately spread by word of mouth. After the industrial revolution, and the advent of the printing press the first forms of advertisements began to take shape, in the form of printed advertisements found within newspapers. This allowed companies to attempt to target and persuade a particular group of individuals into purchasing their goods and or services. Today advertisements dominate the way of life for most of the civilized world, and for good reason, advertisements generate billions of dollars in revenue each year. Consequently, upon

Two agencies were formed to enforce these regulations, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and The Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FDA protects and maintain public health through the regulation of products, focusing on substantiating health and wellness claims either through the product labeling or in the nutritional labeling of the product in question. The FTC, ensures that no company unfairly represents themselves or their products to the disadvantage of other companies. Minute Maid a subsidiary of the Coco-Cola, advertises and promotes a juice product called, Pomegranate Blueberry, that implies it will help nourish your brain. Pom-wonderful, a rival juice company recently named Coco-Cola in a lawsuit, claiming the company misrepresents themselves through the unfair and inappropriate labeling of their product. The intentions of advertising is to manipulate the consumer into believing one product is superior or equal in quality to a rival product, although Coco-Cola has labeled their product within the appropriate parameters as prescribed by law, the misleading use of words, and phrases has mislead the

In recent years the juice company launched a new flavor of Minute Maid, called Pomegranate Blueberry. According to the company website, the new product helps nourish your brain due to the presence of DHA’s, choline, vitamin B12, antioxidant rich vitamin E and vitamin C (Minute Maid). The product clearly states it is a Pomegranate Blueberry flavored 5 juice blend. The product boast that this product contain 50 mg 0f Omega 3/DHA per 8 ounce serving, the labeling and advertising goes on to claim that this nutrient is a key building block in the brain. The labeling and advertising goes on to boast 55mg of choline and goes on to claim that choline and vitamin B-12 play key roles in intercellular-signaling in the brain and nervous tissue. The issue with the advertising is not the claims it makes to the benefits of these key nutrients, or to the fact of the presence of these nutrients in the product, but rather the name of the product that gives consumers a false sense of reality. The problem with the misleading labeling is due in part to the size of the font used to denote, that this Blueberry Pomegranate and in fine print beneath the name of the juice it states that this is a flavored 5-juice blend. To an unobservant eye, a consumer may purchase this product believing they are getting the national benefits of pomegranate and blueberry juices. The reality of it is there are purchasing and