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Morgan Spurlock helms documentary on advertising

(NEWSER) - Morgan Spurlock, the guy behind Super Size Me, calls his latest documentary—an exploration of our ad-obsessed culture—The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. And critics seem to agree:

• Spurlock “has this habit of making documentaries that come hidden in the Trojan horse of silly and then stab at your conscience,” writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone . “As ever, he makes you laugh till it hurts.”

New ad campaign tests limits of agency: Washington Post

(NEWSER) - A judge this week criticized juice maker POM for making deceptive claims about the health benefits of its pomegranate juice. But you wouldn't know it from POM's reaction: It took out full-page ads celebrating certain parts of the ruling, asserting that the judge agreed that POM products "provide significant health benefits." As the Washington Post sees it, the company "poked a big stick in the eye of the Federal Trade Commission" and is testing the limits of the FTC's power. More»

10- to 12-hour documentary will air in 2016

(NEWSER) - Ken Burns' next project will wade into the quagmire known as America's "war of lost illusions:" Vietnam. PBS announced the project, already in production, yesterday, reports Time, and expects to air it in 2016. Burns mentioned a Vietnam project in 2007 when promoting The War, but said he wanted to wait until veterans were "at the age where their advancing age will provide them with the kind of perspectives that we've been able to tap into for this film." More»

POM's deceitful peers include mouthwash, Airborne

(NEWSER) - POM Wonderful pomegranate juice is the latest product to find itself in hot water over its health claims, but it's far from alone. The Week lists 5 other exaggerators:

1. Mouthwash: Johnson and Johnson, CVS, and Walgreens all received reprimands from the FDA last week over unsubstantiated claims that their mouthwash brands could prevent gum disease.
2. Airborne: The cold remedy ("invented by a teacher!") settled a $23.3 million lawsuit rather than attempt to prove in court that it could cure the common cold

POM launches racy ads even as FTC bears down

(NEWSER) - The makers of POM Wonderful aren't letting an FTC complaint against their health claims slow down the marketing of their pomegranate juice one bit, USA Today reports. POM is now making bold claims in that other advertising standby: sex. In a series of steamy new ads, POM presents the pomegranate as temptation embodied both in ancient Greece and the Garden of Eden. More»