The FTC Endorsement Guides:  How-to Guide

I’ve had a fair amount of bloggers and vloggers email me or tweet me asking about how to go about complying with FTC’s Endorsement Guides.

The short answer? It’s EASY.

There is a simple guiding principal to the revised guides, and it is this: consumers should know when someone has received a product for free or if they’ve been paid to endorse it/promote it. This isn’t just about bloggers, it extends to street teams (e.g. a vodka company hires college guys to buy their drinks at bars), Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, what-have-you. The Guides are about increasing transparency in the online sphere.

Here’s what you need to know…

• The guidelines go into effect December 1st, 2009. There is no clear cut answer, that I’ve heard, as to whether this is retroactive or not. Most legal opinions have been that it is likely not retroactive.
• THERE IS NO $11,000 FINE. The FTC has repeatedly stated, since the Guides first were published in early October, that there is no fine. The Guidelines are not legal regulations–they are not law. The FTC does, however, have the ability to seek a court order in order to fine someone.
• Advertisers over bloggers. Again, the FTC has repeatedly stated that they have no intention of going after bloggers for missing a disclosure statement. They are expecting advertisers to educate the people they work with and to be able to prove the claims they make. There are a lot less advertisers than bloggers, which also makes it more realistic for the FTC to deal with. The FTC does not have the money or the manpower to comb the internet for every single blogger and verify whether they’re disclosing this or that.
• Disclose if you are paid. If you’re paid to write something, the Guides say you must state this.
• Disclose if you have received a free service/product. If you’ve been given a free service, product, etc. by the company (e.g. NOT a free sample bag of dog food ’cause you shop at Petsmart all the time) and have a relationship with the company or their affiliate (e.g. PR), the Guides say you must state this.
• Disclose if you are using affiliate links. The FTC hasn’t said much on this matter, and they’ve certainly not been crystal clear on it, either, but a short and sweet disclosure statement about using affiliate links is probably the best course of action.
• You don’t need to disclose if you purchased something. The FTC includes an example of a woman purchasing dog food and reviewing it — and not needing to disclose such.
• Blanket disclosure is not enough. You need to specifically disclose on a per post/page basis if you’ve received compensation or payment-in-kind. You do not have disclose if you purchased something (when you purchase something, in effect, there is nothing to disclose).
• Disclosure should be written for the reader/viewer. There’s no need to use legalese to stress your point. Make it clear, concise, and readable.

The bottom line is: if you make a good faith to comply with the guidelines by disclosing any connections you may have with the product/brand you’re reviewing (payment, sample, etc.), there’s really no reason to be scared or worried. Disclose needn’t be long — “I received this product as a sample from PR” or “This post was sponsored and paid for by X” are to the point and disclose your relationship with the brand.

Don’t be misinformed or uninformed about FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines. Here are some excellent sources for information:

• Blog With Integrity Town Hall Meeting with Mary Engle (FTC Associate Director of Consumer Protection): it’s about an hour long, but it’s really interesting, answers lots of questions — and it’s where I found a lot of information I relayed above.
• FTC Endorsement Guides: Videos: these are short, 1-2 minute videos from the FTC themselves! They’re posted on the FTC.gov website, and they’re frequently asked questions answered by Mary Engle.
• Revised Endorsement & Testimonial Guides: read the text yourself — but if you don’t think you understand it, don’t be afraid to ask questions or Google for answers.
• FTC Guidelines, Bloggers, and Companies: yet another awesome resource that clearly explains expectations regarding the guidelines and doesn’t employ scare tactics.
• FTC isn’t going after bloggers:  PRNewser gets it straight from the FTC