Nowadays, advertisement plays a great role for the formation of public opinion. However there are numerous cases when the advertisement does not comply with the legal requirements. The RA Law on Advertising provides that the advertising should be legal, reliable and proper. Advertising language in the Republic of Armenia is Armenian. If necessary, at the advertiser’s discretion, advertising presentation may be dubbed also into other languages – in relatively small letters.
Advertising is prohibited and is considered to be illegal if it is carried out by means of taking advantage of people’s trust, their lack of experience or knowledge; discrediting the consumers that don’t use the advertised goods; making use of prejudice and superstitions; using expressions, discrediting a competitor or a group of competitors, as well as the characteristic features of the produced and sold merchandise, or improper comparisons with other legal or physical persons and goods; using information not corresponding to the real demands of the goods; appealing people for violence, aggression, panic, as well as violation of conventional norms of morality; using appeals and argumentation directed towards the environment; using appeals and argumentation, calling for activities threatening the life, health and the safety of a consumer; using a project, a text, advertising formulas, illustrations, music and sound effects and other means to mislead consumers.
An advertisement should be banned if the reliability of advertising is violated and if it concerns: the description of a merchandise – nature, composition, manufacturing date, purpose, consumer characteristics, conditions of application, accordance with the standards, quantity, country of origin; the cost and the price of a merchandise at the moment when the advertisement is published; the guarantee obligations; other products, and other legal rights of individuals and comparisons with the position.
An advertisement is banned if it violates the appropriateness of advertising, namely: if it discredits the conventional and national norms of morality; if it contains insulting phrases, comparisons and images with regard to the race, nationality, profession or social background, age group or sex, language, religious or other beliefs; if it directly or indirectly discredits state symbols (emblem, flag, hymn, currency notes, etc.) or expresses disrespectful attitude towards them; if it discredits legal or physical entities, as well as the industrial, commercial or other activities, profession, assortment, etc.
