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Deceptive Commercial Speech and Advertising Essay

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Deceptive Commercial Speech and Advertising
According to the commercial speech doctrine, only deceptive speech that is considered commercial may be regulated. General deceptive speech is not commercial, may not be regulated. When deciding what may and may not be regulated, it is important to understand the subtle differences in what is considered commercial and non commercial speech. An analyzation of false advertising would give further understanding to the notion of commercial speech and how it may be degenerative to a society when untruthful.
Commercial Speech
According to the Supreme Court, the definition of commercial speech is a “combination of a core notion surrounded by a penumbral boundary defined on the basis of three …show more content…

Development
Commercial speech is typically given limited First Amendment protections; however, there exists two types of commercial speech that are exempt from any protection whatsoever. Advertising that is false, misleading, or deceptive is given no protection by the government. Advertising that show cases unlawful goods or services will also receive zero protection from the government (Pember & Calvert, 2011).
Doctrine
The Commercial Speech Doctrine was developed to outline which protected commercial speech may be regulated. While little to no rights are granted to misleading ads or unlawful goods and services, protected commercial speech may also be subject to regulation if: there is substantial state interest to justify regulation, there is evidence that the regulation directly advances this interest, or there is reasonable fit between the state interest and the government regulation (Pember & Calvert, 2011).
Before a state decides to regulate commercial speech that has presumed protection under the First Amendment, that state must assert a reasonable cause for wanting to regulate the speech. For example: a billboard that is blocking the view of drivers on the street nearby would be reasonable cause for regulating that speech. The state must next prove that this regulation of speech has directly effected the interest at which it was

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