Freedom's Watch Pro-War Ad: Is It False Advertising?

I'm all about beating the far-right neocons and if we can do it legally, fine. If not, I have no issue with that either. None.

But one thing that struck me about "Freedom's Watch" new ad is whether or not it qualifies as "false advertising." I fully recognize this is like imprisoning Al Capone on Income Tax evasion, but that worked and we need to be thinking outside the box here.

Most, but not all states, have false advertising claims on the books. They are all pretty similar and read something like this and are designed to prevent anyone from advertising something they know is false or to prevent someone from misleading the viewer.

State and federal laws control competition by regulating activities that are considered unfair competition, such as:

* false advertising and promotion
* misleading or deceptive trade practices
* palming off
* trade dress violations

False or misleading advertising occurs when a business makes a statement, in advertising, that is either untrue or is likely to deceive the consumer as to the quality, source, origin, or endorsement of the product.

Right now, a major bottled water company is in trouble because its water is tap water repackaged. They may have never made a direct claim otherwise but their communications were misleading and therefore, may well be "false advertising."

In Freedom's Watch's ad, they show the plane flying into the World Trade Center on 9/11 along with the words, "They attacked us."

But the ad only talks about Iraq and is clearly linking the attack on 9/11 to Iraq and therefore it clearly is misleading and could well be considering "false advertising."

Any Attorney Generals out there looking to file a False Advertising claim?

P.S. Yesterday Dave Johnson and I wrote more extensively on this front group. Take a read here.