Heard of the New FTC Rules? You Absolutely Must Check This Out Right Now!

Yes, that title was a little long, but I wanted to make certain that I had your attention. As the majority of you may be aware ( or should be, at least ) yesterday new FTC rules came into effect concerning the use of testimonials and endorsements in advertising. Plenty of the new regulations directly affect web-based marketers, so I made up my mind to go direct to the source to see precisely what this would mean for me ( and for you, my readers ).

I went to http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm and actually read through the entire 12 page guide especially the federal Trade Commission sixteen CFR Part 255 Guides Concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Here are the highlights as they pertain to us online marketers :

first off , there’s the problem of endorsements. The FTC specifically states that endorsements must reflect the truthful viewpoints, discoveries, beliefs, or experience of the endorser. This part may appear pretty simple, but how they outline that ‘honesty’ has some big ramifications about how you can write your sales copy or other advertising or promotion pieces.

The massive 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 I’ve always used real examples for my proof, I ( and everybody else ) would naturally pick out the best results out of the bunch to spotlight. Itis a natural thing to do.

But now, no longer are you able to say, about a weight loss product, for instance, Lose twenty pounds in 2 weeks! simply because one of your clients 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 did not adequately cut back the communication that the experiences outlined are sometimes representative. In English, that means that even if you assert that results aren’t standard in small print, it does not change the indisputablefact that you are giving the impression in the big giant headline that everybody could lose twenty pounds in two weeks.

Keep reading the rest about New FTC Regulations…

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Tagged with: Butt • Cfr • Discoveries • Endorsements • Endorser • Federal Trade Commission • Ftc Gov • Ftc Rules • Honesty • Itis • Marketers • Opa • Promotion Pieces • Proof • Ramifications • Representations • Shtm • Substantiation • Viewpoints • Weight Loss Product

Filed under: Online Business, Promotion and Marketing

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