Much Anticipated Federal Trade Commission Guidelines Finally Released

Listen up fellow blogger peeps - next time you open your front door to a free box of cupcakes, a brand new whatchamacallit, or a shiny new bicycle for your kidlet, you better fess up that it was free or that fifty-cent cupcake could cost you $11,000.

The Federal Trade Commission finally released it's revised Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials. The chatter in the blogosphere about what this will mean for us has been non-stop. What does it mean? Well, let's take a quick peak at a selection of the 81 page document....

Excerpt from FTC press release:

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.

Personally, I don't think this will change the way I publish my particular blogs. I don't do a ton of reviews and many of them are simply things that I personally have an opinion about and want to share. In fact, I often find myself qualifying an opinion with "this is not a sponsored post" when I feel particularly strong about a product or service. I have a Full Disclosure tab on my blogs and I usually indicate when I have received free loot. Am I covered?