We’re highly respected and nationally ranked attorneys, with deep and ready knowledge of advertising law, courtroom-tested litigation skills, and a reputation for integrity and credibility earned through prior experience serving with, and working across the table from, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other government agencies.
We help global brands and Fortune 500 companies that manufacture and sell products across a range of industries to navigate this dynamic and heavily regulated industry, ensuring that their marketing, advertising and promotions are both effective and compliant with federal and state laws and regulations, broadcast network and industry self-regulatory standards, and evolving best practices for traditional and new media marketing.
We review traditional and digital advertising and promotional materials for truth in advertising, claim substantiation, use of intellectual property, and compliance with consumer protection rules. We work with companies to evaluate, substantiate, and, where necessary, modify their advertising claims, providing risk management guidance to minimize the potential for competitor, consumer or agency challenges, and achieve their competitive goals in the marketplace with legally compliant marketing campaigns of all types, across all platforms. We counsel on regulatory and compliance issues involved with substantiating monadic and comparative claims, marketing to children, “green” marketing, “Made in USA” claims, product labeling, and other advertising, marketing and promotional practices.
The group has particular counseling and compliance capabilities in:
New Media Marketing
The convergence of new technologies and content provides clients with new media, messaging and social networking platforms, and greater opportunities to understand and engage with their target audiences―and with it the potential for greater legal and business risk. We advise on multimedia marketing and advertising initiatives that require compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the CAN-SPAM Act and state anti-spam laws. We counsel clients on effective strategies to navigate the evolving state and federal legal framework, self-regulatory guidelines and platform policies to take advantage of new media platforms, technologies and techniques to reach and expand their markets. We work with clients on virtually every dimension of new media marketing―blogs, endorsements and viral marketing; sponsored and native advertising; social media advertising and consumer-generated content, contests and promotions; platform terms of service and use, and numerous other legal issues associated with developing media channels.
Advertising Transactions
As advertising campaigns grow more complex, they often require multiple parties to work toward a common goal. Our team has extensive experience in helping clients to draft and negotiate the agreements that underlie these campaigns. Whether you need an agreement with your advertising agency, a celebrity endorser, a sports team, an app developer, or any other entity that is helping you to promote your brand, our team has the experience to help. Additionally, as advertising continues to embrace individual engagements and targeted online activations, our team seamlessly addresses the data-driven privacy and data security elements in these agreements.
Multi-Level and Direct Sales Marketing
We work with multi-level marketing and direct sales companies, helping them and their distributors achieve their business goals in compliance with applicable consumer protection laws. In this area of increased regulatory scrutiny from the FTC and state attorneys general, we help clients to evaluate and implement meaningful compliance measures related to sales methods, compensation structures and claims practices.
Consumer Privacy and Data Collection
In today’s data-driven marketing world, our attorneys work at the intersection of privacy and advertising law, counseling clients on compliance with the overlapping state, federal and international laws, regulations and standards developed to address the privacy and data security concerns associated with the use of new technologies to market to and engage with consumers. We advise on the collection, use and protection of consumer data; develop and review privacy policies and practices; perform comprehensive compliance reviews of marketing and consumer-contact policies and practices, ranging from telemarketing compliance assessments, to privacy and data security-by-design gap analyses; and we help clients to identify and address potential “red flags” to mitigate their exposure of becoming a future regulatory or litigation target.