There is a very interesting case before the U.S. Supreme Court. It involves Xavier Alvarez who was elected to be a member of the water board in Pomona, California. In a 2007 meeting, Mr. Alvarez claimed he was a retired Marine who had been wounded in combat and had received the Medal of Honor for his valor. The only problem was, it was all a sack of lies. Mr. Alvarez had never served in the Marine Corps or any other branch of the service. He had not been wounded in combat. But the claim that landed him in court was his declaration to have been awarded the nation's highest medal.

The Medal of Honor deception broke the Stolen Valor Act, a federal law that makes it illegal to state, either verbally or in writing, that you have been awarded a military medal when you have not. At his hearing, Alvarez's lawyer attempted to have the charge thrown out on the basis that it violated his First Amendment Rights of free speech. Lying about military commendations should be protected as free speech, he argued. The judge disagreed and Alvarez was found guilty. However, at the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, the decision was overturned and the Stolen Valor Act was declared unconstitutional. Judge Milan Smith, speaking for the majority decision, stated, "The right to speak and write whatever one chooses—including to some degree, worthless, offensive, and demonstrable untruths—without cowering in fear of a powerful government is, in our view, an essential component of the protection afforded by the First Amendment.¹" The case was again put on appeals to the Supreme Court who will hear the case in June to weigh the merits—if you choose to call it that—of blatantly lying versus constitutional protection of free speech.

What does the Alvarez case have to do with business in 2012? What Alvarez did in lying about his accomplishments in order to boost his qualifications for public office is done time and again on job applications, social networking sites, down at the corner bar… and in marketing. The problem is, if you choose to shade the truth in your marketing efforts, it has a way of catching up with you sooner or later. I believe it was President Abraham Lincoln who said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." In other words, if you choose to be dishonest, you will be found out. And when you are found out, there is a high price to pay. One of the tenants of marketing is to put the company's best foot forward, which is hard to do if your customers have you pegged for a liar. Honesty in your marketing is a way to make you stand out from the crowd and keep you within legal boundaries. (See my article, Integrity Marketing.)

However, it seems that with the inter-connectedness of our world, lying is more rampant today than ever before. Let me talk specifically about email marketing. We do a fair amount of email marketing for our clients. It is a wonderful tool that is very effective in delivering your message to your target audience. However, it is fairly easy to hide behind a computer from some obscure office and send out junk email. Even though there are laws against it, people are deluged with scam marketing emails all the time. Tighten down your spam filters and check out the reliability of email claims on Snopes.com all you want, the sharks are frequenting electronic media. Just when you thought it might be safe to get into the waters of Integrity Lake, another shark is spotted and everyone is ordered to the beach. This week, there was a Better Business Bureau viral email that claimed there was a customer complaint that needed to be addressed. This was sent to businesses who are obligated to resolve such issues or risk losing their good rating with the BBB. It was a scam. One click and you were allowing the bad guys into your computer system. This spammer was pretending to be the BBB, the premier watchdog group hunting down the marketing liars. Do you see how absurd all of this has become? This is akin to a thief walking into the local police station, picking up a uniform and a badge, and proceeding to rob houses. Does integrity get a pass in email marketing? I don't believe it does. I believe that the market has a way of policing the liars. But with so many false email campaigns out there, how do you build integrity into your marketing plan?

First of all, comply with the federal laws that are part of the Can-Spam Act of 2003. Among other things, the law requires email marketing to state the name of the company and list their physical address in the email. It also requires a way for the recipient to opt out of future emails. There are many emails that I receive on a daily basis that are out of compliance with this law. There are hefty fines if you get caught.

Secondly, make sure you are sending information that your customers want to receive. Do your homework here. Find out what they need from you in order to buy from you. Everyone is loaded down with electronic messages every day. Make sure yours is pertinent.

Can you send email marketing too often? Yes you can. I am annoyed by the twice daily emails I get from a popular men's clothing store ever since I bought a shirt from them off of their web site. I stopped buying from them after they started sending me their twice daily specials. If they had sent their specials once or twice a month, I would still be a customer. Am I being too picky with them? Maybe, but it is not like I don't have a choice where to buy my shirts. In our day, you cannot afford to annoy your customers in this way. How often is too often? It depends upon your customers. Ask them and follow their advice. This is the difference between email marketing and direct mail marketing. Although many people consider direct mail marketing good for nothing but the recycling container, it is hard to over-market it. Email marketing is different. You can cross that threshold if you are not aware of your customers’ acceptance and tolerance of your email blasts.

Most of all, be honest in your offerings. If you are making a claim about your products or running a special price for your services, you need to back it up. Stay away from the shades of truth that will nail you with the customer on down the line. Even if lying about your military commendations gets a pass as a free speech issue, your marketing claims are not decided before a court of law, but in the opinions of your customers. Make sure what you claim and what you do are in alignment.

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A fake Medal of Honor or Purple Heart: Is it free speech?, by Lee Lawrence, The Christian Science Monitor, April 3, 2011