Do You Recommend Products for Compensation - You Might Want to 'Fess Up
In an interesting article by the Washington Post, entitled FTC Moves to Unmask Word-of-Mouth Marketing, it says:
"The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said that companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships."
It will be interesting to see more information and clarification come out about this. Shawn Collins seems to think it would be relevant to things like contextual ads, rather than affiliate programs...but really what's the difference? A recommendation for pay is a recommendation for pay, isn't it? Whether you get get paid now or paid for performance doesn't seem to make a difference to the consumer, which presumably, the FTC is trying to protect.
Of course, I don't know the official answer, but I'm certainly awaiting clarification from the powers that be.
"The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said that companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships."
It will be interesting to see more information and clarification come out about this. Shawn Collins seems to think it would be relevant to things like contextual ads, rather than affiliate programs...but really what's the difference? A recommendation for pay is a recommendation for pay, isn't it? Whether you get get paid now or paid for performance doesn't seem to make a difference to the consumer, which presumably, the FTC is trying to protect.
Of course, I don't know the official answer, but I'm certainly awaiting clarification from the powers that be.
2 Comments:
I know this is a big topic among bloggers like me who are 'posting for pay' on some of my blogs.
I don't mind telling my blog readers that I'm getting paid to share something - I just don't want to have to say it every time. I'd rather have a short disclaimer on the bottom or side of the blog.
When I was younger (back in the stone age, before blogs), I used to listen to Paul Harvey on the radio. I loved his stories. Only much later did I realize that many of his "stories" were actually paid advertisements. They were told in the same home-spun style as all his other stories, not at all like commercials. Would the FTC ruling require that some sort of "Paul Harvey receives compensation from the manufacture of the product mentioned in the following story" message before such stories? :-(
This ruling will probably be ignored by many folks, just like the supposedly tougher anti-spam law that went into effect 3 years ago (I get way more spam than ever now).
I agree with Kelly about preferring to have one public disclosure on the page and/or site versus for every instance where a product is mentioned or recommended.
Hmmm... but then should I specify when I'm talking about a product that I am NOT earning any money for promoting (so readers would be less skeptical of my recommendations)?
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