FTC Rules on Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers, Celebrity Endorsements

The Federal Trade Commission 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. The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that "material connections" (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers - connections that consumers would not expect - must be disclosed.

Additional links:
Soon, Bloggers Must Give Full Disclosure (NYTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06adco.html?ref=todaysp...

U.S. Seeks to Restrict Gift Giving to Bloggers (WSJ)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125475547130664753.html#mod=todays_us_pa...

FTC Sets Endorsement Rules for Blogs (WashPost)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/05/AR200910...

Bloggers face disclosure rules (LATimes)
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bloggers6-2009oct06,0,4733519.story

FTC approves crackdown on blogger payola (AP)
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20091006/blogger06_st.art.htm

Celebrities face endorsement crackdown (FT)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4c854634-b1db-11de-a271-00144feab49a.html