Since so many people have come to rely on the Internet for much of their information gathering and looking for product reviews to base their buying decisions on the act of being paid to write a review, very much like the act of being paid to do a endorsement on television, now must be disclosed.
You see those those late night infomercials that have the very tiny print at the bottom of the screen claiming this is a paid advertisement. Bloggers who are giving paid testimonials need to do a MUCH better job of letting their readers know t.gif)
hat they are being compensated for their endorsements of the products and services they are reviewing. The advertisiers are not off the hook all together. They need to make it known to the bloggers that a disclosure is required now.
Who dares claim this needs to happen? Well none other than the FTC.
Some noteworthy quotes:
"For bloggers, the FTC stopped short of specifying how they must disclose conflicts of interest. Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC’s advertising practices division, said the disclosure must be "clear and conspicuous," no matter what form it will take."
"To placate such fears, Cleland said the FTC will more likely go after an advertiser instead of a blogger for violations. The exception would be a blogger who runs a "substantial" operation that violates FTC rules and already received a warning, he said."
Start of article:
FTC: Bloggers, testimonials need better disclosure
FTC: Bloggers must disclose freebies or payments; testimonials to reflect typical results
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday took steps to make product information and online reviews more accurate for consumers, regulating blogging for the first time and mandating that testimonials reflect typical results.
The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The commission also said advertisers featuring testimonials that claim dramatic results cannot hide behind disclaimers that the results aren’t typical.
