Political advertising isn’t always about the truth, but about how the ad can make you feel about the people being advertised. But why aren't political ads checked for truthfulness? Although we might be suspicious of what we read or watch on social media, as consumers we typically feel pretty comfortable that what we see or hear in an advertisement is the truth or at least not a blatant lie. In the United States, government agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (the FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (the FDA) were created to protect consumers from deceptive communication practices. If companies make false claims about a product, these federal organizations can order the companies to stop advertising, assign punitive measures such as monetary fines, and even require the companies to create corrective advertising campaigns to let consumers know they were misled and to provide these consumers with the proper information.
But what about political ads? Regardless of which side you’re on, you’ve seen ads that you feel were ambiguous or misleading or deceptive or downright false. How do these ads run if there are strict rules against false advertising and there are federal agencies assigned to oversee truthfulness in marketing communications?
There are two answers to this question -- a regulatory one and a practical one. Let’s start with the regulatory one. There’s another government agency called the Federal Communications Commission (the FCC), and its job is to regulate how broadcasters of media and advertising present information to the public. Long, long ago, the Communications Act of 1934 was put into effect, and in it are a number of sections that apply directly to political candidates and the equal opportunities that must be afforded to them. Basically, if a broadcaster allows one candidate to advertise, that broadcaster pretty much needs to allow all of them to advertise. The strength of the law is that if a broadcaster willfully denies advertising access by a legally qualified candidate, the FCC can revoke the broadcaster’s license, which means, no more money for that broadcasting station or company. Essentially, over the years broadcasters have interpreted this to mean that they are not allowed to censor political ads.
The practical answer is that even if broadcasters were allowed or required to censor political ads based on the truthfulness of their claims, they would have an extremely tough time doing that. In today’s age of debated truth and alternative facts, who would make the ultimate decisions on what was acceptable and what wasn’t acceptable and how long would that take? Many political statements are a matter of opinion, or they have their persuasive power because they tell only one side of a multi-sided story. Are these ads false? Or are they just not completely true?
Well, here’s one truth: Political ads are not generally fact-checked because there would be no quick mechanism that would be "fair" to all parties. Consider that many political ads are run locally and regionally. Who would be the gatekeepers of the information? What would be the appeal process? How long would it take? What would be the recourse for candidates who had ads that were unjustly censored? It’s just too complex of an issue to be regulated efficiently.
And here’s another truth: Many political marketers welcome extreme and false ads from the opposing candidates because it allows them to accuse those other candidates of unethical behaviors. Had those ads been fact-checked and censored, those accusations would be less powerful.
Political advertising isn’t always about the truth, but about how the ad can make you feel about the people being advertised.
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