Reflections about misleading advertising

Abstract

Misleading advertising is one of the major problems of the regulation of commercial communications. The Spanish legal framework contemplates the deception from different perspectives:  form and content of the message; omitting information; intrinsic or comparative aspects of such messages, target audience. This article proposes a reflection about the different ways of understanding false advertising, analyzing the basic legislation and also some key aspects of the case law. This reflection shows that the defence of consumers on the commercial communications field should be oriented more and more towards those formats which are not identified as such, due to its integration within other non-advertising content, or by their non-commercial appearance. This Forms therefore concealing the recipient a basic knowledge has that right: know if behind a message about a certain product or brand, event, or even proposal narrative is hidden or not a commercial interest.