In a move that should surprise nobody, the National Advertising Review Council has called for bloggers to clearly disclose when they are receiving freebies or financial compensation in return for promoting or selling goods and services.
Makes sense, right? If someone like (say) a Leo Laporte is praising a Palm Pre on his show, he should disclose the fact that he received it free of charge from the company.
Not so fast, says the advertising industry. The proposed rules have some groups up in arms:
That’s something advertising and retailing groups have bristled at, arguing that this sort of promotion occurs all the time offline. Major industry associations including the Electronic Retailing Association, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, among others, all filed comments with the commission taking issue with the proposed guidelines.
“It’s an example of the F.T.C.’s failure to understand the medium and appreciate the nuances,” said Linda A. Goldstein, a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, which represents several industry groups. “It’s not uncommon for marketers to provide the blogging community with samples of their product or service, but the company has no control over what the blogger writes.”
In other words, since offline groups are able to get away without fully disclosing the origins of their promotions, why should online advertisers not get a break?
How can more disclosure be a bad thing? Just because you may be taking some money from company A doesn’t mean that I will necessarily discount your review of company A’s products. It does mean, however, that I will pay more attention to the way you cover company A, and if I think you are biased toward it, I will find another source for my reviews.
Until the advertising industry grows up and acknowledges that the rules surrounding disclosure are changing, it will continue to find itself at the losing end of these arguments.
via Advertising – Notice Those Ads on Blogs? Regulators Do, Too – NYTimes.com.
