Effective immediately: If you’re a blogger (and who isn’t
these days?) and fail to disclose paid reviews, endorsements or freebies, you
could face up to $11,000 in fines from the Federal Trade Commission, according
to revisions to the agency’s “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements
and Testimonials in Advertising” published on October 3. The agency, which
protects consumers from fraud or deceptive business practices, is now standing
firm about online media practices that to date have been operating according to
informal codes.
An
excerpt from an FTC-issued release:
“The revised Guides also add new
examples to illustrate the long standing principle that ‘material connections’
(sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and
endorsers–connections that consumers would not expect–must be disclosed.
These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is
conveyed by bloggers or other ‘word-of-mouth’ marketers. The revised Guides
specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post
of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is
considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose
the material connections they share with the seller of the product or
service.”
Even messages on Twitter and other
social communities are included in this crackdown.
Celebrities are not immune either.
“Celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers
when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on
talk shows or in social media,” the release explained.
I have a few initial thoughts and
questions about the impact of these Guides:
Most readers will appreciate this transparency.
Honest disclosures empower readers to make up their own minds about product
reviews and content they consume. The problem before these Guides were released
was that readers didn’t know of the possibility of bias (intentional or
otherwise) unless the “conflict of interest” was revealed.
For the past few months, the
advertising network that I run, the Real Girls Network, has required our
bloggers to include appropriate disclosure in each piece of sponsored content
they publish. It’s a one-liner at the end of a post. Here’s an example on SouthernPlate.com. But what we’d like
to know, and which is not outlined in the FTC’s Guides, is where exactly to
publish this disclosure and if there are approved options for specific
language.
How can the FTC expect to effectively
police the gigantic blogosphere? Realistically, will bloggers remember to keep
receipts for the products they buy? Will high-profile bloggers be watched more
closely than those with smaller audiences?
I imagine mommy bloggers are already
freaking out. The freebies they receive on a daily basis must now be made
public information. How are readers going to tolerate reading a disclosure (“My
child’s diaper in this photo was sent to us by Pampers”) within every other post?
