Seeking Comment on FTC “Blogging” Disclosure Policy
October 21, 2009 by Chris Heuer
I have been trying to organize this for a while, but after reading this post from Kim Hart on The Hill.com entitled FTC’s blogger rules ‘constitutionally dubious,’ says IAB, it is time for Social Media Club to create a public response and reccomendation.
Our goal is to submit a thorough response to the FTC before December 1, 2009. If someone wants to step up from the club and take point on this, we would all benefit from someone shepherding this forward.
In addition to leaving comments below, I would ask that you tag any posts, tweets, articles or other media with #smc2ftc.
The FTC announcement. The revised “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising“ SMC Post Circa 2006, “Talking About Disclosure, an SMC Round Table“
I posted about this recently at http://budurl.com/f4wg including links to posts by others, especially Barbara Rozgonyi. My post looked at the issues from the viewpoint of a blogger outside the US.
BTW, could someone get rid of the spammy “comments” I found here? Not a good look, especially for such an important topic.
I’m new to blogging and not in the marketing biz, but it seems to me like if this is going to be highly regulated than shouldn’t other means of media be just as transparent? I know when I read print magazines that many of the products being reviewed are highly likely to be featured there because the mag is being compensated in some way–either free samples or $$. Is this incorrect? I’ve wondered.
I have a disclosure button on my blog and while I’ve only begun reviewing services and products here and there I’ve already stated that I haven’t received payment. But why the focus on bloggers? Isn’t the idea of influence upon those who give opinions something much more complicated anyway?
Would love to learn more about this topic. Thanks for posting.