MarketingSherpa Blog

While we wait for the Federal Trade Commission to release its updated testimonials and endorsement guidelines, I’ve been talking to several experts to get a better idea of what the revisions might mean.

Last week, I spoke with Todd Harrison, Partner, Venable LLP, who focuses his practice on consumer protection agencies’ rules and regulations on drugs, foods, dietary supplements and other products.

Harrison went over situations where an advertiser might have to disclose more information, or remove certain claims, to be within the FTC’s proposed guidelines. Other practices might be explicitly prohibited altogether. One method in particular stood out to me: flogging.

‘Flogs,’ or fake blogs, are set up by companies or affiliates to look like independent websites, but in fact only promote a company’s products. There are variations on this theme with sites posing as product review sites and news sites. All the content — the articles, the comments, the ratings — is false.

“They’re not real testimonials, but they’re representing real testimonials,” Harrison says.  “The FTC is probably going to make it clear that you can’t have ‘flogs’…Even under existing law, those material connections are supposed to be disclosed.”

Harrison mentions that some companies may have affiliates that are flogging without the companies’ knowledge. They might be selling products through an affiliate network that attracts unscrupulous sellers and have no idea.

My suggestion is that marketers to take a look at their affiliates’ websites and tactics to make sure that they’re not deceptive or unsavory. If you use an affiliate network, contact its administrators. A simple checkup should help ensure that you’re providing your customers with an honest experience, and that you won’t attract any unnecessary attention from the FTC.

About Adam T. Sutton

Adam T. Sutton, Senior Reporter, MarketingSherpa
Adam generates content for MarketingSherpa's Email and Inbound Marketing newsletters. His years of experience in interviewing marketers and conveying their insights has spanned topics such as search marketing, social media marketing, ecommerce, email and more. Adam previously powered the content behind MarketingSherpa's Search and Consumer-marketing newsletters and carries that experience into his new role. Today, in addition to writing articles, he contributes content to the MarketingExperiments and MarketingSherpa blogs, as well as MECLABS webinars, workshops and summits.

Prior to joining MarketingSherpa, Adam was the Managing Editor at the Mequoda group. There he created content and promotions for the company's daily email newsletter and managed its schedule.

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Categories: Consumer Marketing, Marketing Law Tags: flog, FTC, testimonials