[havefunbesafe]

Every conceivable thing on earth has some flaw or trade off. Good advertising communicates information about the product while illustrating the next best alternative's trade offs.

I dislike being sold to, but I enjoy getting info for products that are relevant to me.

[programjames]

So, capitalism is built on the idea of mutually beneficial trades. It's supposed to be a cooperative game, and in cooperative games you should always provide as much information to your counterpart as possible. Capitalism breaks down when too much guard labor is necessary: if I don't know what flaws you are keeping hidden, then I have to spend extra effort on every transaction, and will buy fewer things that I want.

What I see lots of advertisers doing is treating it as a competitive game. They're slightly right, as they are competing against the other advertisers for the same customers. However, if all advertisers could just agree to be brutally honest, everyone would be better off. That's the purpose of governmental regulation, and governments routinely strike companies for deceptive advertising.

To be blunt, any advertising that does not make a good-faith effort to give me all the relevant information--the good and the bad--is deceptive. Perhaps you won't get in legal trouble (though you should), and perhaps it's socially acceptable because "everyone else does it" (not everyone, just the vast majority), but that does not make it right. It just means society still has progress to make.