Yes, that title was a little long, but I wanted to be sure I had your attention. As the majority of you could be aware ( or should be, at least ) yesterday new FTC laws came into effect concerning the use of testimonials and endorsements in advertising. Plenty of the new rules directly impact on online marketers, so I decided to go straight to the source to see exactly what this would suggest for me ( and for you, my readers ).
I went to http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm and basically read thru the whole twelve page guide specifically the federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255 Guides Concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Here are the highlights as they pertain to us online marketers :
straight off there’s the matter of endorsements. The FTC specifically states that endorsements must reflect the truthful viewpoints, discoveries, beliefs, or experience of the endorser. This part may sound pretty easy, but how they define that ‘honesty’ has some gigantic ramifications about how you can write your sales copy or other advertising or promotion pieces.
The big term the FTC is using is substantiation of representations conveyed. What this means is that you’ve got to be able to prove ( and back up ) any claims you make. Which I’ve always told you to do, but what’s modified is what they consider evidence. While Ihave always used real examples for my explanation, I ( and everybody else ) would naturally choose the best results out of the bunch to spotlight. Itis a natural thing to do.
But now, no longer can you say, about a weight loss product, for example, Lose twenty pounds in 2 weeks! because one of your customers did. Now, any claims you make need to be representative of the average experience of the user, not the exceptional ones. And you can’t just cover your butt with a results not characteristic disclaimer, either the FTC has deemed that disclaimers didn’t adequately cut back the communication that the experiences depicted are usually representative. In English, that implies that even if you are saying that results arenot typical in small print, it doesn’t change the indisputablefact that you’re giving the impression in the big giant title that everybody could lose twenty pounds in 2 weeks.
Keep reading the rest about New FTC Regulations…
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