Few would deny that what we see in the media affects the way we think and act. Advertisers, knowing this better than anyone else, pay millions of dollars every year to sell their products. For prime time television advertising in the United States, companies pay up to two million dollars for a single forty-second advertisement. In the competition for audience attention, advertisers will do almost anything they can think of to sell their product. A common tactic in commercial advertising is to tie the advertised product to sex or glamour, even when these features do not directly relate to the product. How many times have we seen a pretty woman selling a car? Other ads may make exaggerated claims about the effectiveness of their products. Consumer complaints about misleading or inappropriate content in advertisements have led to multiple restrictions on advertising. Laws exist in many countries to regulate advertising. In the United States, television advertisements for alcoholic beverages cannot show a person actually drinking the beverage. Restricting advertisers through legislation brings up issues of freedom of speech and individual rights. For this reason, US law makers have tried to avoid passing many laws that might limit advertisers' rights. Instead, they have asked the advertising industry to find ways to regulate itself. This led to the creation of the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) in the 1970s. Major advertisers and advertising agencies set up NARC, an industry-run agency that would maintain standards of accuracy, morality, and social responsibility in advertising. Since then, there have been two branches within the organization: the National Advertising Division (NAD) and the National Advertising Review Board (NARB). The NAD is like the police of the organization. They receive complaints by consumers, consumer groups, companies, or associations about advertisements. NAD then investigates the ads and reports any misconduct. If NAD and the advertiser cannot find a way to correct the ad together, the case goes before the NARB for review. The Review Board then reviews the ad and makes a recommendation. As part of the trend towards non-governmental regulation, the media in which advertising appears also work as a kind of censor. Television stations all have departments for reviewing ads before the ads can be shown on the air. This is true for radio stations as well. Likewise, magazines and newspapers review ads before publication to make sure both the products and the content are appropriate for their readers. In addition to their reviews for appropriateness, some publications even check the accuracy of the information in the ads. Along with national advertising organizations and the media, individual advertising agencies comprise a third layer of censorship. Advertising agencies certainly want the public to have confidence in their ads. Therefore, most advertisers use market research as a way to verify the claims made in advertisements. Furthermore, if consumers learn about misleading claims in the ads for a product, the consumers can sue the advertisers. This is why most large advertising agencies employ in-house lawyers for reviewing ads. The medium of web advertising has opened entirely new questions about advertising, targeting one's intended audience, and appropriateness of ad content. At the same time, consumers have made more and more focused demands on all forms of media. In the UK, for example, some have called for a ban on the advertising of fast food, which is widely blamed for problems of obesity. For the time being, a combination of government regulation, citizen demands, and industry self-regulation will continue to shape what marketers do. Summary Media affects the way we think and act. With so many advertisements, their creators must think of innovative ways to get consumers'【66】. Some ads may make exaggerated claims about their products or have misleading content. Public complaints about advertising have led to government regulations in many countries. In the United States, advertisers have set up a self-policing【67】 called NARC to censor ads. Through self-regulation, the industry avoids issues of【68】 of speech and makes sure that their ads are accurate. Advertisers with deceptive ads can be【69】. However, new forms of media, such as the web, have created new questions about【70】. (37)