When will Google and the FTC FCC team up?

[Discovery]

As we all know the FTC and FCC are using the internet to research and find fraudulent ads and companies. It's been a long standing pain point of mine to see so many outright lies on Google advertising financial products and services. Yet, Google has done nothing to stop them. Google Cash Kit anyone? How about a Free Government grant?

FTC’s Warning Letters for Potentially Deceptive Mortgage Relief Ads

The Commission today announced that it has sent warning letters to 71 companies that are marketing potentially deceptive mortgage modification and foreclosure assistance programs. The letters inform these companies that their ads may violate federal law. The ads were identified during a nationwide surf of Internet, direct mail, and spam advertisements that focused on ads for mortgage relief targeted at financially distressed homeowners. These advertisements contain potentially deceptive claims, touting guaranteed results, success rates of over 90 percent, and claiming affiliation with homeowners’ lenders, with the HOPE NOW Alliance, or with federal government programs.

There are a number of problems with what is going on in our current text ad model.

First Google has the capability to find and report on suspicious ad claims, or outright lies. For example ads with a guarantee, but a landing page with no corresponding guarantee. Domain names like. www.FreeCash.com or how about GoogleCashKit.com?

Second the FTC and FCC are searching Google adwords to identify false or deceptive advertising. Many times these ads are created by marketing agencies. Most all legislation is now holding the marketing company responsible for the actions of their clients. Now, if the marketing company is responsible for an ad they had their client approve, then would Google not be responsible for the ad that they approved to run?

Lastly, does the very nature of the popular text ad lend itself to being deceptive? After all how can you create a 95 character ad explaining a complex product or service without the possibility of it being interpreted the wrong way? If you try and stand out with a crafty ad you are at risk, if you keep it bland and safe, eventually everyone will have the same ad.

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How do you see this playing out over the next year or two?

[AussieWebmaster]

Interesting they have the California SEM laws coming out and now this.... Google has to held accountable not joined with government - am still pissed off about new ripoff report rankings over the weekend