Because They Deserve It

My first reaction on seeing this http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1550482,00.html
was ' about time too!'. Then came the second thought.. why should we pretend that most, or even some, advertising is not deliberately misleading or frivolous? Because that is the implication of choosing to prohibit certain cherry picked examples. If an advert for anti-cellulite cream X is prohibited because the product doesn't really work, does that mean that those which are advertised do work? Of course not. It means that the claims in the other adverts are sufficiently nebulous or oblique to have escaped censure. There is a sense in which banning some but not all of this twaddle actually encourages credulity. The whole point of advertising is to get people to buy things, and trivial issues like the comparative or absolute efficacy of the products would merely serve to inhibit the consumer urge. People should learn to be less gullible and more discriminating, otherwise they will get precisely what they deserve.