Yes, that title was a little long, but I wanted to make certain that I had your attention. As almost all of you could be aware ( or should be, at least ) yesterday new FTC laws came into effect concerning the employment of testimonials and endorsements in advertising. Plenty of the new laws directly affect web-based marketers, so I made up my mind to go directly to the source to see exactly what this would mean for me ( and for you, my readers ).
I went to http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm and basically read through the entire twelve page guide particularly the federal Trade Commission sixteen CFR Part 255 Guides Concerning the employment of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Here are the highlights as they pertain to us online marketers :
first off , there’s the matter of endorsements. The FTC specifically states that endorsements must reflect the fair opinions, discoveries, beliefs, or experience of the endorser. This part may appear pretty straightforward, but how they outline that ‘honesty’ has some enormous implications about how you can write your sales copy or other advertising or promotion pieces.
The big term that the FTC is using is substantiation of representations conveyed. What this implies is that you’ve got to be ready to prove ( and back up ) any claims you make. Which I’ve always told you to do, but what’s changed is what they consider evidence. While Ihave always used real examples for my evidence, I ( and everybody else ) would naturally choose the best results out of the bunch to highlight. Itis a natural thing to do.
But now, no longer can you say, about a weight loss product, for instance, Lose 20 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 scale back the communication that the experiences outlined are generally representative. In English, that means that even if you assert that results arenot typical in small print, it doesn’t change the indisputablefact that you are giving the impression in the big giant strap line that everybody could lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks.
Keep reading the rest about New FTC Regulations…
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