Free Speech - SSRN papers

PEER PROMOTIONS AND FALSE ADVERTISING LAW ELLEN P. GOODMAN* I.

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

II. MARKETING EVOLUTION AND THE LAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Informational Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B. Image Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C. Integrated Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

686 687 690 694

III. PEER PROMOTIONS AND ADVERTISING LAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Pure Peer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B. Fake Peer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C. Mixed Peer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. Manifest Sponsor Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. Hidden Sponsor Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

699 700 701 702 702 703

IV. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706 I.

INTRODUCTION

Early this year, Advertising Age magazine named “the consumer” as its 2006 “agency of the year.”1 This was days after Time magazine had selected the consumer as “person of the year.”2 With these exaltations of the amateur creator, the editors acknowledged the burgeoning of “peer-generated” media content in the form of wikis, blogs, video sharing, podcasts, and other media genres. What impressed the press was the tremendous communicative power that individuals can wield through digital networks and the impact of this power on industrial economies. Scholars and other commentators too have celebrated what is known

*Professor, Rutgers University School of Law-Camden. Thanks to Carmen Thomas and Christopher McDonald of the University of South Carolina School of Law for the invitation to speak at the South Carolina Law Review symposium and for their editorial assistance. 1. Matthew Creamer, John Doe Edges out Jeff Goodby: The