Supreme Court Rules that Business have Free Speech
In Citizens United vs
In Citizens United vs. the FTC that political contributions from businesses are covered under the Constitution as Free Speech. They ruled that a corporation can use its finances to fund commercials against specific candidates or any cause they want. You can say what you want about the politics of the Supreme Court Decision last week on Citizens United Vs. The FTC, and argue with me all day if they are correct in their decision, however the positive implications on the interactive advertising business are clear in more way than one.The first implication, that Money is Free Speech, is not a new one. In Buckley v. Valeo, the Court ruled that some limits on campaign expenditures and donation limits, were in fact limiting the ability of people to express themselves through donations. The court saw that in politics and in much of the real world, the easiest way to express your opinion, or more importantly your appreciation or approval of a candidate (or product, or service) was through giving of money. This new ruling brings it to another level that corporations, run by either stock holders, board of directors, can also engage in free speech through the distribution of money. This means that Business Money is Free Speech also.
Last week in my blog, INdustryPace.com, I made comments about the FTC regulating business speech, and more importantly, them determining whether or not a product advertisement is misleading or has done the "appropriate" amount of research to make these claims. While I am not a constitutional attorney, this ruling goes hand in hand with my point that business speech is just as important as any type of free speech. It is only logical that if companies are allowed to give money to political causes, and that is free speech, then advertising, by definition is a form of free speech.
I also said that the FTC's over regulating of commerce, especially when it comes to small businesses is restricting their ability to grow. A small business owner, who starts to sell a new product that he personally thinks is great, shouldn't have to prove beforehand that the product is as great as he says. This is not to preclude the FTC prosecuting obvious fraud where products are clearly mislabeled or clearly unsafe. However, if an advertisement is no more than a free speech vehicle, in which one is expressing their opinion about a product, then it's obvious to anyone that should be covered under the idea that Business Speech is Free Speech.
The second positive implication is purely financial. With corporations being able to engage in policy and political advertising, this means that they will be seeking other avenues to convey the message. With the enormous growth in the advertising industry, expect them to be hiring more and more companies to spread the word. While I cannot predict the future specifically, I expect that hundreds of millions of dollars will be readily available for interactive advertising businesses during the next election cycle. While Google will see a large part of the budget, new companies that can provide a forum for political message will find new money to be made.
I know that some people will come back and say that this provides undue influence by corporations wishing the affect the outcome of an election. I'm never sure how to respond to this, because already in all spectrums of politics, money has major influence. Whether it's the Mormon Church influencing people in California over Gay Rights, or politicians such as Bloomberg using their money to campaign for Mayor, money is an essential part of any process. If we are going to say that one segment of the population cannot not use money, even if that part is a corporation, then we will continually open up the door for more government intrusion into our lives, whether they are personal or business.
Giving the government, whether it's the FEC, FTC or any other "F"ing three letter government the ability to "regulate" based on their own opinions often, scares the heck out of me. If they can decide tomorrow that a business can't make a claim about a skin cream making you pretty, then perhaps tomorrow they will decide that my belief that some politician is a moron, is also "incorrect." We should be less worried about business having influence, than the government operachnicks having power. I'm a lot more concerned about someone like Bloomberg using his power in government to affect my life and personal freedoms, that a business being involved in his election. As business people, as marketers, we should similarly be concerned whenever the government is involved in deciding what is ethical and correct in business. Remember when ever state had Blue Laws, which prohibited working on Sundays? Can you imagine if tomorrow someone determined that we can't show ads all Sunday?
The Supreme Court has made a monumental decision that I believe is far reaching. With the internet allowing more and more people to start small businesses, and more importantly the ability to experiment with new and novel ways to conduct business it becomes more and more important that we protect the ability for these businesses to thrive. As we face one of worst economic downturns of our generation, we cannot allow politicians to destroy the seedlings of a new economy by overregulation. This is very significant in the interactive advertising industry which is an essential part of new products being introduced into the marketplace. Companies like Google and Facebook have created systems that allow, just for a few dollars anyone, to promote and advertise their product to anyone who would be interested in it and then support that same business through monetary expression.
Supreme Court Rules that Business have Free Speech
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