Word: ftc
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...themselves last week. In a Manhattan federal court, the U.S. Justice Department charged that two of them had conspired to monopolize the $40 million-a-year market for meprobamate, better known as Miltown or Equanil. The defendants: Carter Products, Inc., recent loser in a 17-year struggle with the FTC to preserve the "Liver" in Carter's Little Liver Pills, and giant (1959 sales: $450 million) American Home Products, which sells 90 household products, from Chef Boy-Ar-Dee ravioli to Anacin and Preparation H (for hemorrhoids). Trustbusters charged that Carter, which developed meprobamate and controls one-third...
...these fringe operators, the Federal Trade Commission found most of these claims untrue. Also untrue: claims of "continual comfortable wear," "wear them up to six months without removing," "never irritating," "unbreakable," "cannot damage the eye," "provide better vision than other eyeglasses," "protect the eyes in all active sports." The FTC has forced several makers of such claims to tone down their copy, but the peddlers involved often simply cross a state line and set up shop under a new name...
...shaving phony sandpaper in commercials for Colgate-Palmolive's Rapid Shave and by doctoring Standard Brands' Blue Bonnet Margarine with liquid drops that were billed as "flavor gems" (TIME, Jan. 25). Reeves's ad was addressed, in 84-point bold type, to Earl W. Kintner, FTC's mild-mannered but sharp-minded chairman. It looked as if long-haired Rosser Reeves was taking a swing at the judge while his case was still in court...
...prime example of Reeves's hard-sell tactics, which have helped boost the agency's billings from $4,900,000 to $120 million in his 19 years at Bates. These tactics have also inspired the FTC to fire off more complaints against Bates than other agencies. Among its accounts that have also been named by the FTC: Life cigarettes, Rolaids, Carter's Little "Liver" Pills. What miffed Reeves most was that until two months ago, the FTC had usually tipped him and the advertiser that a complaint was coming, given them a chance to argue their case...
...world and the companies involved reacted as if the FTC had attacked mother and apple pie. Fairfax Cone, who had a hand in creating the Pepsodent commercial and who sternly told admen three weeks ago to clean up "dishonest advertising," had a novel retort: "To me it wasn't wrong, and I think I have as high ideals as anybody around. I believe in the truth." Colgate-Palmolive announced that its shaving commercial was only "a technique used to overcome photographic difficulties," and that "sandpaper can be shaved." Standard declared that "the presence of the gems in Blue Bonnet...