As the BBB celebrates its centennial, it's worth remembering that we were established as the result of business-led efforts to promote honest, trustworthy advertising. These early efforts to end the practices of making outlandish, unbelievable advertising claims that were common 100 years ago have grown into an advertising review service, based on self-regulation, respected by small local businesses and multi-national corporations alike. BBB's Ad Review services encourage honest, clear, and reliable advertising at every level.
At your local BBB, our Ad Review cases come from consumer complaints, competitors, and internal review of all forms of media. We request both Accredited & non-Accredited businesses to voluntarily substantiate or modify their advertising based on the BBB Code of Advertising, industry standards, and applicable regulatory guidelines. "Advertise Honestly" is the second component of both the BBB Code of Business Practices and the BBB Standards of Trust that Accredited Businesses are expected to follow and uphold.
Key issues that are common to every marketplace are free offers, claimed results of products or services, and guarantee/warrantee issues. These and other advertising challenges can be fairly simple, or time-consuming and complex. Further explanations of these issues and the full BBB Code of Advertising can be found at http://richmond.bbb.org/bbb-code-of-advertising/, and for more information about the advertising review services of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, please visit http://richmond.bbb.org/Advertising-Review-Services/. Benjamin Barbour, Charity and Trade Practices Analyst, can be reached at bbarbour@richmond.bbb.org or (804) 648-0030 for further information about the Ad Review services you support at the BBB serving Central Virginia.
