Censorship or Consumer Protection? New FTC Guidelines Concerning Endorsements and Testimonials Affect How You Do Business

Oh – did I say censorship? It’s more like… forcing — no wait I shouldn’t say forcing…I should say…

inviting – yeah, that’s it…INVITING

INVITING anyone who uses

testimonials to stop using results-based testimony – even though – let’s face it – those ARE someone’s actual results they say in the testimonial, and they are supposedly a citizen with free speech.

But this isn’t about freedom of speech, it’s about consumer protection. Maybe. There are enough smarmy marketers out there that Big Bro FTC decided they needed to save stupid people from themselves so these people wouldn’t mortgage their home to pay for a big ticket coaching program  Or saving people from yo-yo dieting because they see those TV commercials with the stars who get thin (for a while) using the expensive, pre-packaged meals.

Wow, the new ruling will truly have a huge impact on the diet industry, won’t it? but it doesn’t stop there.

Testimonials, endorsements and blogs are under the spy glass starting NOW.

This is something you need to know about. First, the release right from the FTC and then, commentary.

For Release: 10/05/2009

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Changes Affect Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers, Celebrity Endorsements

The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.

The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

Celebrity endorsers also are addressed in the revised Guides. While the 1980 Guides did not explicitly state that endorsers as well as advertisers could be liable under the FTC Act for statements they make in an endorsement, the revised Guides reflect Commission case law and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.

The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.

The Commission vote approving issuance of the Federal Register notice detailing the changes was 4-0. The notice will be published in the Federal Register shortly, and is available now on the FTC’s Web site as a link to this press release. Copies also are available from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,700 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Betsy Lordan
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-3707

STAFF CONTACT:

Richard Cleland
Bureau of Consumer Protection
202-326-3088

(FTC File No. P034520)
(endorsement testimonial guide.wpd)

E-mail this News Release
If you send this link to someone else, the FTC will not collect any personal information about you or the recipient.

OK what this means in plain English (ooh CommonCraft folks…you need to do the video “FTC Testimonial Rules In Plain English)

Sorry…my mind works that way sometimes…Waht this all means in plain English is that you USED to be able to say “Results not typical” anytime you shared a testimonial from a customer who said something like, “I lost 87 pounds in 3 months with the ___ program.” or “I wrote my book in 12 hours” or “I made $793 in 17 minutes with this program” type of claim. Not so with the new ruling, effective December 1, 2009.

Doing an honest business is far from enough. Honesty and integrity are neither the baseline nor the measuring stick of good business, according to this new FTC mandate. Testimonials that are true and accurate from customers who used your stuff to get an honest result are not going to protect you from the strong arm of the law.

Your results – the results you the buyer get from using a product – now become the responsibility of the one who sold it to you under the new ruling. Want an example? Consider this.

Say I’m a diet company; I can’t say anymore that you can join me and you may get atypical results of rapid and long-term weight-loss with stories from exceptional but real people. I cannot any longer say that what you put in your mouth and whether you get your @ss off the couch is your concern. I as the diet company would become responsible for saying, “Get your hand out of the d@mn potato chip bag NOW and get off the couch and work some of that @ss off now, you lazy sloth!”

So that means everyone who joins WW or JC or eD or any other program must now have a support person arrive at their home to keep them on-program. Or…they just have to stop using any results-based testimony from real clients.

How does the new FTC ruling  affect you?

This is a snippet of what Jason Fladlien, a really awesome entrepreneur i just met name, wrote on his blog about the ruling:

If you think that you’re an honest person with a quality product and run an ethical business, and that’s all you need to be safe – you’re dead wrong.

This law isn’t about honesty. Every testimonial I’ve ever used was honest. It’s about “typical”. There’s a difference. While it’s my not my responsibility beyond giving you what you need to guarantee your results (YOU have to apply it!) I am liable for you now under the new laws.

So now a product creator, coach, mentor etc., according to the new ruling, has to not only take charge of creating the best product possible and doing an honest business. You also have to take responsibility for people who buy your stuff to get specific results. And it doesn’t matter whether or not they take action, you, the product creator – the coach – the diet company or whatever – become responsible for the consumer’s ACTIONS (or lack thereof.

Maybe that sounds reasonable to you. It probably does. Only about 10% of people who buy an online product or coaching program even start the first lesson. And only 3% finish. So according to the way most people think, “it’s not MY fault if I bought a product, did nothing (or not much) got little or no results, because YOU sold me the stuff, so it’s YOUR fault that I’m still fat, broke, lazy and loveless.”

I’ve been in the coaching industry, and the biggest problem is that a buyer will plunk down money for something, maybe not use it or only just barely get started, and then blame the coach for the fact that you didn’t make a million overnight or you didn’t get your business started or you didn’t get that book written in 12 hours or you didn’t meet the love of your life in 90 days – even though you probably didn’t attend a single call or read the book or take action in any way on the program….

Because in your eyes, if the product/program were that great it would have turned your life over simply by downloading the file or adding the mentoring call to your calendar (without you having to actually DO anything to cause the change you supposedly want to happen.

Automatic Results

So what we need to find a way to create is an auto-results-on-demand system whereby simply plunking down money for a product or service in and of itself causes a cascade reaction that brings about the desired result without you yourself having to do anything. Then we the product/program creators will be SAFE from the law.

How to Protect Your Business from the New FTC Rulings on Endorsements and Testimonials

1. Avoid results-based testimonials from now on. Rely, rather, on character-based testimonials and endorsements.

2. Since complaints and not policing will cause a business to be in the cross-hairs, put systems in place to ensure the highest possible degree of customer ssatisfaction so nobody will have cause to complain to the FTC for any reason.

3. Continue creating fabulous, life-changing products.

4. Most important of all, expect things to go right  Never live or work from a place of fear.

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• Important Information for Bloggers who give Endorsements or Testimonials (brassandivory.blogspot.com)
• Why I’m Complying With the FTC Regime for Bloggers Even Though I Don’t Have To (socialmediatoday.com)
• New rules on blogger payola and relationships (vator.tv)
• FTC to bloggers: Fess up or pay up (news.cnet.com)
• FTC to Fine Bloggers up to $11,000 for Not Disclosing Payments (mashable.com)

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Rant on How to Irritate Friends and Negatively Influence People: Just Show Up & Throw Up Your Free Stuff All Over Them

I am SICK and TIRED of people flinging free stuff at me without sharing why the stuff is valuable to me. What about you?

Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE getting something valuable to me for free, and I love giving valuable free resources to people, but I’m noticing a trend.

I keep receiving messages with nothing more than something like, here’s a free gift worth $97” plus a link.

Maybe it’s worth $97 to you, but it’s worth ZERO to me unless it’s something I actually can use…something I truly WANT.

I was at a low simmer until just now, when I went to full rolling boil.

An email I just received from a professional in the network marketing industry just about drove me over the edge. he’s has a terrible tendency to  “show up and throw up.” Meaning he has this habit of talking to his list as if they’re a herd (when one person at a time reads an email). And he basically pukes his stuff all over them. It is so NOT appealing!. BLECH!

When I tell him he needs to focus not on the volume of his stuff and not to insist that it’s good stuff, he ignores me and sends out messages like one you’ll read shortly.

“blaaaaaaaaaap – here’s a huge pile of MY free STUFF – and it’s GOOD STUFF too – no…really…take it…please…PLEEEEEEEEASE!

he even sent out a message with a subject line of  “plEEEEz” or something close to that one day, which made me want to vomit. It makes him come off as a simpering idiot desperate for sales rather than as a professional in his industry.

Begging and slinging your free stuff at people makes you seem desperate, which I can only assume you are when you plead with people to look at your stuff.

Here’s one message i received a few minutes ago:

“Thanks for being my subscriber. Here’s a link to great free stuff.”

I’m not your anything – and how about saying the VALUE of whatever it is you’re giving me. I’m not about to download crap just because you fling it at me.

Now, as promised, here is the barf bag email of the day award winner…

Hi everybody, it’s ____…

… with a whole bunch of “good & cool stuff” for you.

> Free stuff
> Cheap stuff
> Expensive (life-changing) stuff

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

Your barf bag is in the mail.

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Rant: Why Can’t Sighted People Follow Directions? And Why Can’t You Go Back And Read Directions Before When Something Isn’t Working As You Think It Should?

I don’t know what it is about you sighties. You can’t follow directions worth stink. Why is it that I am blind and yet I can follow a series of steps with no problems – unless I miss something – at which point I go back to the instructions and READ/watch/listen and follow.

Case in point. Someone was signing up for a piece of software. I even stayed on the phone while she filled out the form (where it says name…you put your name…where it says buy now…you click it and follow instructions to pay). She was then to send specific information to the techie guy who was setting up the software. Instructions said exactly what information was needed and even where to find it (in the emails that come with order confirmation). First she was looking in her mailbox for software that was to be installed on a website…then she said she never got it installed. And it turns out she never got the info to the techie guy so he could set her up. DUH! READ the freaking’ directions!

Another guy said his software wasn’t working right. I of course have nothing to do with the software at all and of course the guy couldn’t be bothered to go ask his questions on the tech call designed for that sort of thing. So when he told me what was wrong, I said, “Aha! You didn’t follow the directions!” I pointed out the tutorial video.

“I watched it,” he said.

“Well…since you didn’t do what the video said to do, you might want to go back and review. Load the file the way the video says to load it and everything will work perfectly.”

Which of course it did.

So why does it take a blind woman to show sighties how to do things even when it’s not my software, not my job to teach you to run it, and when all the instructions are clearly listed on a website (and even in big print)?

 

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Rant: Perfectionists Are Such a Pain: “Winners Take Imperfect Action while Losers Are Still Perfecting Their Plans” -Kevin Nations Inspirational Success Quote

In Native American cultures, even the best beadworkers and weavers will consciously add an “error” into their work. Why? Because only divinity is flawless.

Perfectionists would disagree. After all, there is so much fault to find with others. So much “wrong” that should be “fixed.”

I often think that if perfectionists took as much time getting themselves into action as they do nit-picking everyone else, they could REALLY get somewhere in life.

Don’t sweat the small stuff

Someone complained to me about the way I linked to her website. With or without a “the” in front of it, the link works. Both go to the exact same place. So who cares which one you use? Didn’t you have anything better to do with your time, I wonder? How about building relationships with key people in your industry instead of picking things apart that aren’t broken?

Someone mentioned that the same tinyurl in a blog post leads to 2 different places. Well, both went where intended, so why does it matter? How about using your valuable time to move your business forward?

What are you asking for?

I’ve got one person in my life who has this “thing” for attracting picky people. She must really enjoy the difficult people, because she keeps calling them to her, and  like dogs to the dinner bell, persnickety people run from every direction to find her. So far she isn’t making the connection between the vibe she’s putting out and what is showing up in life.

I’d like to send both of these people a complimentary enema so that you can get things moving in the right direction.

If this post makes you mad – it obviously applies to YOU!

What really rankles me is how much time and effort is spent micro-managing the business of others rather than taking a long, hard look in the mirror. Then if the perfectionist is picking something apart, it’s your own reflection for a change instead of everyone else around you.

But I suppose that will never happen. I guess for some people, it’s fun to look for everything that is WRONG around you.

What’s RIGHT?

If you are a perfectionist, there is hope. Start each day – and even each conversation – asking yourself, “What’s WORKING in this situation?” In other words – what’s RIGHT?

The next question to ask in any encounter is how much whatever you are so uptight about really matters. This is the question, “In a year, will it matter?”

The cure – a deep breath, a laugh, and a good poop!

Take Action – revise later. NOTHING is perfect. Indigenous cultures worldwide know it.

“Winners take imperfect action while losers are still perfecting their plans” – Kevin Nations

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• Wednesday One-Liners by Dr. Ruth (overheardinnewyork.com)

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Rant – Misinformed, Misdirected, and Miserable: My Hotels.com Experience and Why I will Not Use Them Again

In case you haven’t figured it out, this is a rant. This is also a personal narrative example concerning my recent travel experience.

Since I wanted to go to the Impact event a couple days early for some Florida fun, and since the hotel conference h hotel – the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort – was RIDICULOUSLY expensive, I needed to find an affordable solution for the first couple of nights. I truly HATE having to switch hotels. It is a chore for anyone, but more so when you have extra difficulties navigating and are traveling with a guide dog.

Now imagine this. I’m mostly blind. I’m traveling with a guide dog. I obviously don’t drive, and therefore I have some very specific needs and questions.

That being said, I called Hotels.com and first got a guy who said his name was Albert (yeah right), who barely spoke English.

Feeling less than confident in what I would get from him, I asked my specific questions, which were these:

1. Is there a hot tub, and is the hot tub working?
2. Is there a shuttle service to Discovery Cove? What times does it run?
3. Is there a shuttle to Sea World, and what times?
4. Is there a restaurant on property?

“Albert” put me in a hotel called the Imperial Swan Hotel & Suites, which was cheap. However after the call, I discovered that customers had given the hotel ratings of 1 out of 5 from guests. Gee thanks. Just what I need. I don’t require a luxury resort, but I don’t want a dirty dive either. Read more

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