Question

Advertising & the First Amendment

The question is often asked: Does the First Amendment protect advertisements? Advertising is indeed protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. However, advertising or "commercial speech" enjoys somewhat less First Amendment protection from governmental infringement than other types of speech. Should this be the case? How should advertising be regulated? By who? Why? "Your posting should contain at least 200 words of quality discussion."

Answer 1

This should be the case, while commercial speech should have prominent place in the rights protected by the First Amendment becuaseThe market of commercial speech is where ideas and information flourish. It should be the speaker and the audience who should be accessing the value of information, not the government .but commercial speech that is false or misleading is not entitled to any protection under the First Amendment, and therefore can be prohibited entirely. A business cannot deliberately provide false or inaccurate information to customers and claim freedom of speech as a defense. It should not be the individual but rather the market that should decide the content of commercial speech; it should be attributed to a business enterprise. The listener is protected rather than the speaker. Self regulation by advertising industry includes establishing policies and procedures for all self regulation review panels such as NAD (National Advertising Division), NARB (National Advertising Review Board), CARU (Children's Advertising Review Unit).