Editor’s note: Joel Zeiler is senior vice president at Ipsos Marketing, a Westbury, N.Y., research firm. This article appeared in the November 9, 2009, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.

Litigation cases involving claims of false advertising brought under the government's Lanham Act are frequently won or lost based on the quality of the supporting marketing research, and that research’s ability to persuade the court that its design and analytics are credible.

The basic tenet of advertising law is that advertising must be truthful and in no way deceptive. As an advertiser, you can knowingly or unknowingly break this rule through either your misrepresentation or omission of facts that make what is stated misleading.

These concepts apply to the advertisement as a whole and to specific claims made therein. And the tenet is not only for claims about your products or services but for claims made about a competitor’s products or services as well. Further, while comparative advertising is allowable, and even encouraged, like all other advertising, it too must be truthful.

So, when you’re considering a claim about your product or service, or those of your competitor’s, be prepared to back up what you say.

There are generally three main regulatory avenues for addressing false advertising claims:

• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is empowered to outlaw unfair or deceptive trade practices. It can investigate (with broad subpoena power) industry practices or actions of a single company, issue cease-and-desist orders and seek a variety of court-imposed civil and criminal sanctions. The publicity alone from an FTC investigation and/or cease-and-desist order can be devastating to any business.

• The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the National Council of Better Business Bureaus is a self-regulating outlet for advertisers. The NAD receives or initiates, evaluates, investigates, analyz...