The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week that it sent warning letters to more than 60 national advertisers regarding the inadequacy of disclosures in their television and print ads. The letters are part of an initiative named “Operation Full Disclosure,” which the FTC implemented to review fine print disclosures and other disclosures that it believed were difficult to read or easy for consumers to overlook, yet included critical information that consumers would need to avoid being misled.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR A DISCLOSURE TO BE “CLEAR AND CONSPICUOUS”? -

Disclosures may be necessary to clarify a claim or to ensure that the full terms of an offer are adequately disclosed, in order to avoid a charge of deception by material omission. In FTC jurisprudence, disclosures must be “clear and conspicuous,” and while they may modify claims in the text of an ad itself, they may not contradict any such claims. The most recent pronouncement on how to make effective disclosures (this one was focused on online disclosures, but the general principles are the same) was issued in March 2013. The key is that if a disclosure is necessary to make an ad truthful and not misleading, it must be clear and conspicuous; otherwise, it is as though the disclosure was not made at all.