Do you have a website? Blog? If you do, you may have a particular interest in this month’s article on Writers Beware of the Legal Pitfalls — Disclosures.
In March, 2013, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its revised staff guidance publication, “Dot Com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising.” This document gives us an idea of what the FTC considers unfair or deceptive acts under the law and sets forth certain best practices that online advertisers, which include bloggers, should follow.
I’m going to touch on some of the points that bloggers need to disclose when you publish a sponsored post or spread sponsored content over your social network, but you may want to check out www.ftc.gov since disclosures in advertising has had quite a bit of activity, especially with the new creative advertising techniques that keep emerging. The purpose of this series is for general educational purposes only and NOT to provide legal advice.
The FTC
Enforces consumer protection laws and regulates commercial conduct in the online and offline marketplace, including online advertising, marketing, & promotional activities.
Disclosures are how you tell a follower, reader, or a fan about the relationship you have with a company, brand, or corporate sponsor. It’s not only the law, but your transparency builds trust with your audience
How, When, and where do you make them?
Let’s look at how:
Blog posts: Include a paragraph that spells out clearly your affiliation and/or compensation.
Tweets, Pins & Status Updates: Use understandable hashtags, like #sponsored.
When:
Immediately, and every time. Every single post that you publish that’s sponsored by a brand, a company or obtained through an affiliation with a media network must include a disclosure paragraph. If you use an affiliate link in a post or on your web site, you are required to disclose them as an affiliate link, not just a regular link to a product or company website. You are required to make appropriate disclosures every time your post is sent out into the social network, and the same goes for status updates and tweets that do not specifically mention your post, but mentions the brand or product.
Where:
Upfront, not buried. You want to make sure that your audience can understand the hashtag or language you use.
You may ask, “Why should I disclose if I don’t blog that much?”
- Online advertising that’s deceptive or unfair is against the law.
- By merely appearing deceptive, you could lose your readers as well as their trust.
- The FTC could investigate and/or fine you or the brand.
- The brand could pull your direct contracts or sponsorships.
- Disclosures are most likely already required by your media networks.
Affiliates
Speaking of affiliates, make sure you carefully read the terms of the program before you add them to your site. Also, periodically check afterward to see if there were any updates to their program to ensure you still comply. Also, some states prohibit affiliate relationships. Check the law in your state.
Next month we’ll delve into defamation, privacy, and publicity. There’s more than meets the eye there.
(C) 2018, 2019 Karen Van Den Heuvel Fischer
Thanks so much for the information. I’d love to see 2 or 3 examples, either from your site or made up, to illustrate how you’d handle such things.
Does the language need to be legal/technical or is colloquial fine?
If you link to Amazon to sell your books, is that obvious you’d profit or do you need a disclosure?
If you promote another author’s books, so he/she would promote yours, do you need to disclose that?
If you run a contest to promote comments by giving away your own book, does that need disclosure?