1. Was Mercury guilty of deceptive advertising with its Mariner commercial?
2. Check the “truth in advertising” guidelines at the FTC Web site (www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/adv/bus35.shtm). Has Mercury followed these guidelines?
An automobile purchase is a high-involvement one for consumers wanting to make a smart decision. That’s why many car advertisements use rational appeals to relate to the audience’s self-interest. The ads show that the product will produce the desired benefits in terms of quality, economy, value, or performance.
Consumers pay attention to this information when deciding which automobile to purchase. For example, a recent television commercial for Mercury’s Mariner SUV claimed that it could go “429 miles on a tank of gas, . . . more than a Honda CRV.” Now, this is technically correct, because the CRV’s fuel tank capacity is smaller (it can go 413 miles on a tank of gas). However, what the ad didn’t say is that, in reality, the CRV’s gas mileage rating is slightly higher than the Mariner’s (27 miles per gallon versus Mariner’s 26 miles per gallon).