Commercial and Corporate Speech

This week in class we discussed commercial and corporate speech. Commercial speech is a form of speech protected under the First Amendment; however, it does not receive as much free speech protection as political speech, which is a form of non-commercial speech. Google defines Commercial speech as “speech or writing on behalf of a business with the intent of earning revenue or a profit.” The class definition for commercial speech is speech that proposes a transaction. Prior to the 1970’s, commercial speech had been subject to significant regulations to protect citizens from false or overly exaggerated claims regarding a product or service. Shortly after though, The Supreme Court eventually decided that this type of speech deserved First Amendment protection.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) work together to protect U.S. consumers from companies attempting to make false claims. The FDA is responsible for protecting public health by ensuring safety and efficacy. The FTC is an independent agency (in collaboration with the United States government) whose mission is to protect consumers and competition by preventing anti-competitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices, advocacy, and education without interfering with legitimate business practices. I believe commercial speech protection as well as the FTC is important because without it, companies could make all sorts of claims about their product or service that are completely false in hopes of tricking people into purchasing their product. Requiring companies to back up their claims and even requiring them to have multiple tests done on their product before they can make certain claims about it, is a great way to ensure that companies are being truthful and transparent about the claims they make. At the heart of FTC protection is health claims. Health claims can count as health and nutrient content claims, health claims on food labels, claims of “natural” or “healthy” among other claims. The next target are claims of efficacy. This is where the FDA requires at least two adequate and well-controlled studies before companies can make certain claims regarding their product or service.

Corporate speech is defined by google as the rights of corporations to advertise their products and speak to matters of public opinion. Our class definition is speech about matters of public concern. Corporate speech does confuse me a bit because I do not completely understand the definition. Even though I do not understand corporate speech as much as I do commercial, I enjoy learning about both aspects of First Amendment protection and I hope to learn more about corporate speech as the semester continues.