FTC Rules on Endorsements and Testimonials in Blogs

Since most consumers have become savvy to traditional advertising techniques, brands have been forced to change their marketing strategies. And for the last few years, marketers have taken advantage of bloggers and celebrities to endorse their goods and services, often times for a little shwag in return. But there hasn't been transparency. Companies promoting their goods and services have been able to fool consumers into thinking that the testimonials and endorsements that they are reading online or seeing on TV are real, when in fact they are phony. The FTC has incorporated several changes to the new "Guides" that state that any connections between advertisers and endorsers must be disclosed.

While the new, and much improved, version of the "Guides" will help protect vulnerable consumers, they will be incredible difficult to police. The "Guides" clearly state that judgments will be made on a "case-by-case basis" and that they are not binding law, but rather interpretations of the law. Hopefully the fact that both the endorsers and advertisers can be held legally responsible for false claims and/or failure to disclose their connections will be motivation for compliance.

Consumers are tired of being advertised to. They have come to depend highly on word-of-mouth recommendations and have the right to make educated choices, as opposed to being fooled into thinking that a product or service is something that it's not. The FTC has finally caught up to an aspect of the advertising industry that it was so poorly policing for the last 10 years.

It's time for deceptive marketing techniques to lose to honesty and transparency. Companies that embrace the new guidelines will find themselves on the top of their markets, not only because the FTC is requiring it, but because consumers are demanding it.