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Say you meet someone who tells you about
a great, new product.
Would their glowing endorsement factor into your
decision to buy it?
Maybe so.
But what if you find out the person works for the company
or has been paid to recommend the product?
Wouldn't you want to know that?
That common-sense principle is at the heart of the Federal
Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides.
Hi.
I'm Mary Engle, an attorney with the FTC, the nation's
consumer protection agency.
If you advertise products or services to consumers, or if
you're involved in marketing using social media, blogs,
affiliates, and the like, you should know about the
Endorsement Guides.
The Guides have been around since 1980, but the FTC
revised them in 2009 to include examples that reflect
today's marketing media.
You'll want to read the Guides for yourself, but they boil
down to three basic concepts.
First, endorsements must be truthful and not misleading.
They have to reflect the endorser's actual experience
and opinion.
Furthermore, you can't make claims about a product that
require proof you don't have.
For example, you can't say a product will cure a certain
disease or cause weight loss if there isn't scientific
evidence to prove that's true.
If an endorsement is deceptive, both the advertiser
and the endorser could be held responsible, so
compliance is important.
Second, testimonials claiming specific results usually will
be interpreted to mean the endorser's experience is what
other people can expect, too.
It's not enough to say results not typical or individual
results may vary.
That means advertisers have two choices--
have adequate proof to back up the results you show in an ad
or clearly disclose the results people
can generally expect.
How would that work?
Well, say an ad features an endorsement from a women who
claims, "I lost 50 pounds in six months with Weight Away."
What if that was an exceptional case?
If most people aren't likely to get those results, the
advertiser would have to clearly disclose what most
people could expect in similar circumstances.
For example, "Most women who use Weight Away for six months
lose 10 pounds."
Third, it's the law, and it's always been the law, that a
material connection between an advertiser and an endorser has
to be disclosed.
What's a material connection?
It's a connection between the endorser and seller that could
affect how people evaluate the endorsement.
In other words, a connection that someone wouldn't
reasonably expect.
When the FTC revised the Endorsement Guides, that
standard stayed the same, but the examples were updated to
include blogs, social networks, and online
discussions.
The Guides now make it clear that the same standard applies
across the board.
The Endorsement Guides won't apply to most bloggers or
people who use social networks.
They're just connecting with friends and family and talking
about what's going on in their lives.
But if you're part of a marketing program with an
advertiser, and you're getting paid or getting products or
services in exchange for talking about a product, you
need to disclose that relationship.
It's simple.
ABC Company gave me this product to try, and here's
what I think.
This is about transparency, being upfront with people and
making sure they have the straight story about a
connection between an endorser and an advertiser.
To sum up, under the FTC Endorsement Guides,
endorsements have to reflect the truthful
experience of the endorser.
Endorsements cannot include claims about a product that
require proof you don't have.
And if there's a connection between an endorser and an
advertiser, make sure it's clearly disclosed.
For more information, read the FTC's
Revised Endorsement Guides--
What People are Asking, available at business.ftc.gov.
Questions?
Send them to endorsements@ftc.gov.
We'll address the most common ones in future publications.
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