December 24, 2021
If you were to venture a guess at the number of ads you see daily, chances are you’d be way off the mark. With the explosion of digital advertising, it is estimated that the average person now sees up to 10,000 advertisements every single day, a mind-numbing figure by any measure. This advertising avalanche leads most of us to automatically filter out all but the most relevant messages, but even then evaluating the claims and promises that belie each ad is nearly impossible without a healthy commitment to due diligence.
Nowhere is this due diligence more critical than in evaluating products pertaining to consumer safety, and nowhere is vigilance more necessary. Bad actors in the consumer marketplace are not novel, but with increased direct-to-consumer options, misinformation and misleading claims are on the upswing.
The pandemic has underscored that oversight is especially critical in the health care marketplace, where Americans need clear and concise guidelines to ensure they are making safe choices for themselves and their families. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated several regulations to mitigate consumer risks. But many industries still largely operate on an honor code system, resulting in consumers themselves carrying the burden of serving as truth detectors.
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