The new warning statements also apply to advertisements, including those created by retailers. The kinds of retailer-created advertisements that fall under the statute include promotional materials (point-of-sale or non-point-of-sale), posters, placards, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, leaflets, brochures, direct mail, display racks, websites, internet web pages, TV and email correspondence, as well as advertisements communicated via cellphone, social-media applications or other programs that allow for the sharing of audio, video or photography files.
For print advertisements (or advertisements with a visual aspect) the required warning statement is required to:
—Appear in the upper portion of the advertisement within the trim around the edge.
—Occupy at least 20% of the advertisement.
—Appear in at least 12-point font size that ensures that the required warning statement occupies the greatest possible proportion of the warning area set aside for the text required.
—Be in Helvetica bold or Arial bold type (or other similar sans serif fonts) and in black text on a white background or white text on a black background in a manner that contrasts by typography, layout or color with all other material on the advertisement.
—Be capitalized and punctuated exactly as the statements provided by the FDA.
—Be centered in the warning area in which the text is required to appear and positioned such that the text of the required warning statement and the other textual information in the advertisement have the same orientation.
—Be surrounded by a rectangular border that is the same color as the text of the required warning statement and that is not less than 3 millimeters or more than 4 millimeters.
Photo courtesy of Thinkstock