The FTC has elaborated on its rules on endorsements, making plain that it's not enough to just link to disclosures about paid endorsements online, to make your disclosures far from the paid action or to otherwise leave things at all unclear. Watch attorney Brian Heidelberger's brisk walk through the rules.

1. Mini Law Lesson
FTC Answers Your Questions About
Testimonials/Endorsements
Brian Heidelberger
bheidelb@winston.com
Twitter @briheidelberger
www.winston.com/bheidelberger

2. IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER
• I am not your attorney.
• This is not legal advice.
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3. Who is the FTC focusing its
enforcement on?
Advertisers, Ad Agencies and PR
Firms
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4. What’s the general rule on when
disclosure is necessary?
Disclosure is necessary if the
audience doesn’t understand the
“speaker’s” relationship to the
company whose products are being
recommended
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5. What words trigger disclosure
requirements?
It’s not just positive “words”, even
merely posting a picture or a video of
you using a product could convey
that you like and approve of the
product
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6. Isn’t it Common Knowledge that
Bloggers Get Free Stuff?
No, it is with print media, but online
is different
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7. Everyone knows celebs get paid
to tout products, do we have to
cause them to disclose?
Yes, unless you are sure that the vast
majority of the celeb’s followers
understand that he/she is getting
paid
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8. Does compensating for a “share”
trigger disclosure?
Yes, if you’re asking for the share as
part of a sponsored campaign or
you’re compensating people to share
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9. What about compensating for a
“like?”
Disclosure may not be required, but
advertisers shouldn’t encourage
endorsements using features that
don’t allow for clear and conspicuous
disclosures
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10. I’m just talking about my
company (or my agency’s client),
do I need to disclose?
• Yes, you should make sure that
your relationship is disclosed to
people who read online postings
about the company or its products
• make sure your company permits
it
• only give your honest view 10

11. We let our reviewers who are
compensated say anything they
want, even negative reviews, do
they still need to disclose?
Yes, because knowing about the
compensation would probably affect
the weight your customers give to
the reviews
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12. Is a “link” to a buy page enough
disclosure?
No, if you are getting paid on a click-
through, that must be disclosed and
it must be disclosed in close
conjunction to the link
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13. Is disclosure on my profile
page/video description good
enough?
No, since many people in your
audience probably won’t see it
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14. Is disclosure at the end of a video
ok?
• No, having it at the beginning of
the review would be better
• If it’s a live stream, multiple
disclosures are best
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15. Can’t we just have a link that
says “Disclosure” or “Legal”
No, since it doesn’t convey the
importance, nature, and relevance of
the information
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16. Do we have to make them
disclose the exact nature of the
compensation paid?
No, just that they were “paid” (or
otherwise explain the type of
compensation)
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17. Give me the exact disclosure
language to use?
• Write it yourself
• What’s important is effective
communication, not legalese
• Use “Sponsored” and
“Promotion”, “Paid ad”, “Ad:”
• Note re sweepstakes: “sweeps”
isn’t good enough!
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18. We don’t have room to disclose!
Sucks for you.
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19. We told our agencies to follow
the FTC Guides, are we in the
clear?
No, the advertiser is still liable
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20. Our advertiser client approved
the post, is our agency in the
clear?
No, agencies are individually liable
for their actions
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21. We told our
blogger/celeb/endorser/consumer
to disclose, we’re done right?
No, you must also monitor and ask
for revisions to posts if improper
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22. How much monitoring must we
do?
The scope of the program depends
on the risk that deceptive practices
by network participants could cause
consumer harm – either physical
injury or financial loss
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23. youtube.com/adage
or
Youtube.com/brianheidelberger
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24. Twitter
@BriHeidelberger
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