The Federal Trade Commission is firming up plans to crack down on bloggers for false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.
Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2009 12:00 am
We just noticed Warning No. 1,314 that the Internet is loaded with untrustworthy material.
The Federal Trade Commission is firming up plans to crack down on bloggers for false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.
Businesses increasingly try to generate buzz by paying bloggers to promote their products and services, The Associated Press reported.
Unwary consumers think that bloggers - who often have an online persona that makes them seem ordinary, unpaid and credible - are reliable sources.
That might have been true back in the day, but no longer.
As the AP reported, bloggers have accepted free laptops, trips to Europe and thousands of dollars in exchange for a 200-word favorable post.
Even savvy consumers might not be aware of how sophisticated the relationship between businesses and bloggers has become.
IZEA is an Orlando, Fla.-based firm that matches advertisers with 256,000 bloggers. Over the holidays, it gave selected bloggers who normally didn't shop at Kmart $500 gift cards and encouraged them to write about shopping there.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ford Motor Co. gave blogger Jessica Smith a Flex crossover vehicle for a year, and a gas card, after a favorable blog. She blogged, "The Flex also proved to make me feel safe and secure while bringing out the exciting and rebellious side of me at the same time. … It's high tech surprises that seemed to never end make me swoon."
Smith does give notice at the bottom of her Web page that she accepts compensation, but she also told the newspaper that she never writes anything negative "because I choose not to be critical."
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Internet entrepreneur Ted Murphy, CEO of IZEA, has arranged blog campaigns in which he offered bloggers money to write favorably about Sears products. Blogger Jessica Gottlieb of Los Angeles accepted $250 to promote a Sears sale.
The FTC expects to approve its guidelines later this summer. Just how vigorous the agency will be in enforcing them remains to be seen.
Because the Internet seems to add hundreds of bloggers every week, the task of monitoring them could be never-ending. Presumably, the FTC will just pursue the worst offenders.
For now and the foreseeable future, the wise consumer will be skeptical - of all bloggers. The Wall Street Journal reported that "Mom bloggers have been especially courted because the marketers believe they are regarded as more authentic."
There's an old saying in journalism that "If your mom says she loves you, check it out."
In the blogosphere, those words carry more weight than ever.