On October 5th, The Federal Trade Commission released and published its finalized Endorsement Guides for advertisers regarding endorsements and testimonials.
In this document were many examples of how one could violate these guides in internet advertising. The main purpose is to ensure that the public are made aware of the fact that a paid endorsement is a paid endorsement and not necessarily the viewpoint of the endorser, and that testimonials do not give the public a false view that the product discussed is perfect, will fix whatever ails you etc., but gives an honest view of the average results from using the product.
This makes perfect sense in theory, as noone wants the public to be misled by unethical or dishonest advertisers. However, the guides are problematic in several ways, and will greatly affect how bloggers and users of social media communicate about products which they are promoting, reviewing or endorsing in any way at all.
1. Some internet markets do not really have “average” results to speak of, or are difficult to determine. This is really the main problem. It can be done with creativity, but it certainly will require a good deal of effort, time and possibly money, depending how it’s done.
2. The rest is just more of a nuisance than anything else, trying to work out how much disclaimer is needed to satisfy the FTC requirements, ensuring you include the disclaimer for every single product or service which you are promoting or endorsing. And it has to be done, because if your business gets targeted for whatever reason by the FTC, the fines will be severe.
For more information about this subject and possible solutions, watch the video below…
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