Ethics

New Disclosure Law for Bloggers: $11,000 Fine

October 9, 2009 by diannejacob

As mentioned in a previous (and my most popular) post on accepting freebies, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now targets bloggers in its updated guides on endorsements and testimonials. If you write about a product or service, and don’t disclose that you got something for free, you risk a fine of $11,000.

Before you freak out, let’s review the categories that might require disclosure if you choose to write favorably about them:

1. Free products or services (also called product-in-kind) including:

books from publishers meant for review, even if you’re given a book at an event
a goodie bag you get at an event
kitchen equipment sent for possible review
prepared foods sent for review or mention
free service, such as Sur La Table sharpening your kitchen knives.

If you’re involved in a viral marketing program, such as General Mills MyBlogSpark program, you must say so. (If you don’t know about this kind of program, welcome to the new world of inexpensive marketing. According to an article in AdWeek, “General Mills contacted 100 mom and food bloggers in conjunction with the launch of a new blueberry acai flavor of its Yoplait Yo-Plus yogurt. It provided coupons to try the product as well as tote bags and other swag to give to readers. General Mills also sent out key product messages touting the yogurt’s health benefits…Overall, the program resulted in 5 million total impressions and over 8,000 comments with no media costs. [General Mills does not buy ads on blogs, Witt said.]”

2. Free trips or free meals at restaurants or events.

3. Nice blogging gigs for pay, such the National Pork Board, Pork, Knife & Spoon. (Are there other examples? I’d love to hear about them.)

4. Independent reviews in exchange for cash. I’m sure none of you do this, where you get paid to endorse a product by writing positive comments on blogs and websites. Plenty of unethical people are willing even if you aren’t, and I hope the FTC fines them all. Still, if you get a book for free and write a positive review on Amazon without disclosing, that could be a problem.

Now, let’s get to the wording. I suspect saying “ScharffenBerger sent me this new baking chocolate” or “a sponsor gave me this” is not specific enough. The FTC rule says “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.” You have to say you got it for free, or that you were compensated. Conversely, if you bought the item, it seems more important than ever to say so, to cover yourself. And if you don’t have a policy on your blog about receiving free products and services, now’s a good time to write one. Of course, if you don’t review items you receive, or if you return them, these rules don’t apply.

The good news is that individual bloggers are not the target of this ruling, according to an interview with Richard Cleland of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. It’s more about going after advertisers, he says. Still, the best practice is transparency in writing, and being held accountable to your readers, who trust you. I hope this new ruling results in fewer positive reviews now that bloggers might feel less beholden, or more honesty about personal reasons for trashing or praising.

Thanks to Mary Margaret Pack, Carole Bidnick and Faith Kramer for sending me links for this post. They were free and I did use them.

So, are you ready for this new law? Do you already have a process in place? Let me know how your food blogging will or will not change.

Separating Hype, Opinion and Journalism

September 3, 2009 by diannejacob 10 Comments

When a food blogger emailed me recently to say she had just heard “puff piece” for the first time, I wondered who else had never heard of this term.

Her email led me to ponder the differences between hype, opinion and journalism, especially in blogs. I’m concerned, because some 84 percent of Americans say online customer evaluations influence their purchases, according to an Opinion Research Corp. survey. That means if you recommend [Read more…] about Separating Hype, Opinion and Journalism

I'd Like to Have an Argument: Bloggers are Journalists

August 28, 2009 by diannejacob

images-1 Recently I wrote a post about handling freebies that got a ton of attention, thanks to people who re-Twittered (re-Tweeted?) it. Some bloggers commented that they are not journalists, and therefore rules about handling freebies, reviews, and promotions do not apply.

I wasn’t so sure, and thought I’d do some research. Let’s look at three definitions of a journalist:

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a journalist is

a writer or editor for a news medium, or
a writer who aims at a mass audience.

According to Dictionary.com, a journalist has several meanings:

the occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing, or broadcasting news or of conducting any news organization as a business.
the “press”
a course of study preparing students for careers in reporting, writing, and editing for newspapers and magazines
writing that reflects superficial thought and research, a popular slant, and hurried composition, conceived of as exemplifying topical newspaper or popular magazine writing as distinguished from scholarly writing.

And according to Scott Rosenberg, author of Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why it Matters, “blogging could be journalism any time the person writing a blog chose to act like a journalist — recording and reacting to the events of the day, asking questions and seeking answers, checking facts and fixing errors.”

So according to each definition, food bloggers are journalists. You aim at a mass audience (your blog is public), you write in a popular, non-scholarly way, and you record and react to the events of the day (even if they occur in your kitchen), asking questions and seeking answers.

Semantics aside, most of what food bloggers write is the same format as published content. Publications have columnists who write humorous first-person essays or opinions about current events. They have cookbook reviews, recipes and product reviews. Sure, your posts contain links, the content is usually shorter, and photography makes step-by-step recipe writing clearer and visually appealing. But basically, it’s the same thing.

The bottom line is that you are not reinventing the wheel. You are producing recognizable, familiar material in a different medium. Therefore, rules of ethical behavior apply.

7 Guidelines for Food Bloggers on Freebies

August 11, 2009 by diannejacob

The Federal Trade Commission has new guidelines that will require bloggers to disclose when they’re being compensated by an advertiser to discuss a product. If you read them, you’ll see that most of the language pertains to advertising, so for now, you’ll have to read between the lines. The guidelines don’t define a “payment,” for example, and don’t specify what incentives other than cash must be disclosed to readers. See this Cnet story for more.

This is old territory for me, a former magazine editor who made and enforced rules about reviewing. Ethics rules have existed for years but are hardly uniform. At my magazines, I thought I knew which reviewers received and returned which products, but I probably never had the whole picture. I hired a full-time editor whose job was to sift through press releases and write up products. He often hid from me the expensive gifts [Read more…] about 7 Guidelines for Food Bloggers on Freebies