On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission rolled out an update to its “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” See some of the news coverage here, here and here. The official FTC announcement is here.
The last time the guidelines were updated was 1980. That’s WAY before blogs, social networks, Twitter et al. Heck, the term Internet had barely been coined and the media infrastructure we enjoy today was just a dream (if that).
So now the FTC has updated its guides to include the likes of celebrity endorsers, bloggers and Twitter users. What’s the news? In essence, the FTC now requires that material relationships be disclosed. If a blogger is paid by a marketer or gets free products for reviews, he or she must disclose it.
At FM, we applaud the spirit of the new FTC guidelines. While some see this as government overreach (a legitimate concern), we feel that it’s a good baseline position for all media to adopt.
At FM, transparency and authenticity are basic, foundational principles in everything we do and, in this sense, I’m proud to say we were WAY ahead of the game. See here for FM’s Mores – originally drafted in 2005 and revised in 2007.
Transparency and authenticity are good for the entire media ecosystem because they 1) protect the credibility of media creators, 2) create a quality media experience for the end-user and 3) offer a safe, effective advertising environment for the marketer. If the FTC’s new guidelines help bring more folks onboard with these foundational principles, more power to them!