You have just been promoted to the Lead Marketing Director position within an advertising company. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently investigating one of your advertising campaigns for "Mike's Meatless Burger" which has been accused of using deceptive marketing practices due to the unsubstantiated claim of being "the tastiest meatless burger in the world." In addition, the independent taste testers used to validate this claim have been found to consist largely of paid company employees.

Is the advertising practices in this scenario unethical?