FTC Weighs In On Sponsored Bloggers

Last week I asked the question, Can A Client Be Your Friend On-Line? This week, Joel Postman over at Socialized mentioned that the FTC has laid down the law when it comes to blogger / sponsor relationships.

As an aside, skimming over the FTC Endorsement Guidelines reminded me why I left the Air Force… Footnote city.

My Weak Attempt At An Argument About Time

Like I said, I skimmed through the Endorsement Guide and came across this section, toward the front of the document that I found interesting:

that functions similarly to traditional media . . . if (1) the blog provides content that is editorially independent of any sponsor or marketer of a product or service, and (2) there is no material connection with the marketer of a product or service that is discussed in the blog that would call into question the editorial independence of the blog.16

The thing about on-line media is that it’s forever. If I’m a celebrity, an internet celebrity, or anybody with a blog for that matter, I may write about the things that I like without having a business relationship at the time. Those posts are indexed by Google and searchable forever, however, even if I one day I become sponsored by the company I had once written about for free.

If this happens, is it incumbent on the blogger to retroactively state the new relationship on old material?

My Stance

Now that Oprah’s on Twitter and everybody is connected to everybody… haven’t we evolved into a world where deceptive business practices are relatively easy to sniff out on-line? Justin Kownacki just wrote an awesome post about a relatively minimal amount of detective work he did to expose a Pittsburgh MLM scheme disguised as a networking opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that people do bad things to other people. And I think that there should be some level of protection and/or enforcement against those that take advantage of their fellow man. I also think that it’s totally possible for people to work for and with people they like / believe in / what have you, and get paid. Other than because it’s the law now, I still don’t know that people in those situations need to always disclose their relationship.

I understand that not everybody believes in the things that they put their name on, but I also know that, for the most part, the average consumer is smart enough to perform some kind of due diligence before they commit to something significant. And in the unfortunate event that they do get burned by some swindler, they will spread the word to their social networks and not let it happen again…

What Do You Think?

Is the FTC right on with these guidelines, or out of line? Am I being naive or idealistic? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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