Have you been making some extra change whilst blogging about your favorite pass time? Beware, because the regulators are looking at your site. Why? Apparently some bloggers have been making bold claims about their favorite products not because it's good, but because they get paid for giving rave reviews. And now two of the national advertising review council investigative units plan to announce Tuesday their first decisions involving blogs. Their recommendations call for clear disclosure when a company is sponsoring a site or paying for product reviews.
The announcement is not shocking at all, but it's one that should act as a wake-up call to bloggers who willfully talk up products even if they know the products are not good. Hitting even closer to home, the FTC used video blogger who receives a free copy of a new video game system from its manufacturer for review as an example:
“The readers of his blog are unlikely to expect that he has received the video game system free of charge in exchange for his review of the product, the commission wrote. As this fact would likely affect how credible consumers find the review, the blogger should disclose that he received the game free."
Gamers are aware that bloggers and gaming websites receive video games systems and software for free on many occasions. So using the gaming community as an example is far fetched to say the least. In fact, there are so many bloggers and websites giving their own opinions, that if a game or gaming console turns out to be crap, there's no running away from it; you will know. Gamers are bold like that. (smiles).
08/12/09 Ernice Gilbert
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