Heading off a possible fraud prosecution, Sony Pictures on Monday signed an agreement with the state of Oregon in which it promised never to cite phony critics in newspaper ads for its films. The agreement came following revelations that two Sony marketing executives had included quotes from an imaginary film critic in ads for several recent films. “It’s a basic violation of our consumer protection laws and we thought, they have really gone over the line on this one,” Jan Margosian, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office, told the Associated Press Monday. “They always use puffery, but to fabricate somebody and put them up on a billboard and everything — that’s going too far.”
- Advertisement -
