EU law to put an end to critic misquotes

Posted on June 5, 2007
Filed Under Blogroll |

Movies, plays and books are often promoted using quotes from critics’ reviews. In most cases, the marketing people will select quotations from positive reviews; but some times positive reviews from well known critics are hard to come by. This is especially true for shows that are plain awful. So, marketers occasionally break the rules and misquote a critic to promote their product. Take for example the theater critic who wrote of Saturday Night Fever play: “if it’s an all-out romp you want, this only fitfully deliver.” Promotional material for the show shortened the sentence to, “an all-out retro romp.”

Advertising agencies not playing fair is nothing new. But the European Union wants to mostly put an end to such dishonest practices with the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. The EU Consumer Affairs website states,

The Directive aims at enhancing consumers’ rights and boosting cross-border trading by harmonizing divergent national rules on business-to-consumer commercial practices. The new legislation outlines “sharp practices” which will be prohibited throughout the EU, such as pressure selling, misleading marketing and unfair advertising. Certain rules on advertising to children are also set out. Through this legislation, EU consumers will be given the same protection against aggressive or misleading marketing whether they buy locally or from other Member States’ markets.

In other word, the EU wants to protect consumers from misinformation. What this law means is that when it comes into effect for all EU member countries, marketers misquoting critics may find themselves prosecuted with punishments that could even lead to jail time.

With the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Europeans are not likely to be tricked again Sony who invented their own movie critic in 2001 in order to promote some of their worst films such as A Knight’s Tale and Rob Scneider’s The Animal.

Every day that goes by, Europe sounds like a great place to live!

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