Say it with me: FTC!
*jump splits*
Here’s the short clip on CBS News 5 with Kiet Do that aired at eleven tonight. Props to Jim Flanagan for mad camera skilz and sense of humor. : )
Oh, you want to know why? The Federal Trade Commission did something this week that affects each one of you so listen up:
The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.
The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.
Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.
That means, no more small print on the bottom of the screen that blends with the room’s carpet: “Results not typical.” Anyone who receives any consideration whatsoever from a company as a basis for a product review must be disclosed to the extent we haven’t seen since the debut of Happy Fun Ball.
I personally do not accept payment for any review, I do not officially do reviews. I have put a disclaimer on this site and instructions on my contact page about what I may or may not do because people will send me things whether I want them or not. These people are paid to throw mud on the wall, and in this particular demographic, over forty soccer mom with kids and a credit card and reasonable vocabulary, we are the golden children. They will eventually move on to a more profitable and interesting demographic, but for now, we are it and we owe it to our readers to be transparent and truthful.
Join the Momversation
I write. A lot. I wrote a book
I'm on Momversation.com Hire me for web and graphic design I made some free WordPress Party Themes I like Tenderness and Grace My Latest Videos My Latest Press
There are 32 people reading.
Subscribe to the Feed
- © The MommyBlog.com and Wonderbelly.com
- illustration by TearDrop
- website design by Moxie Design Studios™
The Mommy Blog™, Wonderbelly™, Mommy Confidential™, and PearSoup™ are trademarks of Wonderbelly™. All rights reserved. -
| 
| 
| Blog Listings |
GeekySpeaky: Submit Your Site!
10.06.09 at 05:20 PM |
I think this is a good thing. Reminds me of a print ad I saw about a year ago featuring Queen Latifah for Jenny Craig (I think). She said she had lost 5% of her body weight and felt much healthier. Very good! I think Queen Latifah is a beautiful larger woman, but if she wants to improve her health - more power to her. Anyway… at the bottom of the ad was a disclaimer reading, “Results not typical.” That really annoyed me.
She probably weighed something like 200 pounds (if that). So if she lost 5% percent of that it would be around 10 pounds. So they basically stated in their ad that a person could pay for their diet service and not reasonably expect to lose 10 pounds. How is that supposed to entice anyone to spend money?
Sorry.. I guess I got a little off topic. Thanks for the info though.
10.11.09 at 10:32 AM |
The FTC changed the laws a little bit and will it really change anything? No, not much, they don’t have the funds or manpower to enforce it. Its kind of like Obama and his empty calls to change. Much ado about absolutely nothing…
I wonder if the Obama administration and the government will ever come clean about their role in the creation of the H1N1 swine flu virus - read this: H1N1 and how the government brought it to us!
10.16.09 at 09:45 AM |
Great write up of this special read. It is on my vacation reading list and I’ll probably situation the ordination on Virago when I return from Lake Tahoe this weekend.
free webcams
10.18.09 at 08:33 PM |
So far I’ve only broken down and done a couple reviews on my site, but before I started, I made sure I had a disclaimer in place. I think if you’re an honest person you won’t care about the FTC taking a closer look. So far I haven’t come across this problem, but I made a promise to myself that if I didn’t like a product I would either be honest about it to my readers or let the company know not to expect a good review and then opt out of me doing it. I’ve had so many of my non-bloggy friends and family, who have been watching the news, call me worried about all this. I think the news about it is really more aimed at the non-bloggers so they will know they can now expect to see more honest information from the web and also at the people who will do anything and say anything just to get free stuff.
10.23.09 at 12:37 PM |
Greatly holographic indeed.I really enjoyed your article and constitute it to be real telltale, ready up the ripe output, I’ll be coming rearmost to construe any of your emerging articles.Impart you for your Precise article.Equivalent to translate author comments like that.It helps to crystalise our mind.Thanks.