The Advertising Law Blog provides commentary and news on developing legal issues in advertising, promotional marketing, Internet, and privacy law. This blog is sponsored by the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions group at Olshan. The practice is geared to servicing the needs of the advertising, promotional marketing, and digital industries with a commitment to providing personal, efficient and effective legal service.
Influencer marketing, native advertising and online reviews have become popular marketing tools for many companies given the popularity of social media. To address consumer protection concerns relating to the use of such endorsements, the FTC has issued guidelines. With the popularity of social media and marketers’ reliance on this form of advertising, it is important that companies review and implement these guidelines into their online marketing. Notably, the guidelines require that endorsements reflect the honest opinion of the endorser, that the endorsements are not misleading, that the endorsements are not used to make a claim that the product’s marketer could not legally make, and that if there is a connection between an endorser and the marketer that consumers would not expect and would affect how consumers evaluate the endorsement, that connection should be disclosed.
Conference call outlines FTC efforts at bureaucratic reform