FTC Reassures Kidlit Bloggers at DC Meeting

Saturday afternoon, an associate director for advertising practices at the Federal Trade Commission met with attendees of the 2009 Kidlitosphere Conference to discuss the FTC’s new guidelines for commercial endorsement and how they’ll affect book bloggers when they go into effect on December 1. In her remarks, Mary Engle made—and as far as we know this is the first time the point has been publicly made by a government representative rather than a blogger—what the blog Galleysmith described as “a distinction between independent reviewers (that would be us book bloggers y’all) and participants of marketing programs.” The report goes on to say that “[Engle] admitted that the FTC probably could have done a better job of drawing this distinction in the guidelines but hoped further clarification would help alleviate concern.”

The upshot of this is simple: “If you are working with a marketing program you must disclose that connection. If you are an independent reviewer you do not.” The Galleysmith account of the meeting goes on to address several other related issues that came up in the conversation, one significant topic being participation in e-commerce affiliate programs, which do constitute an endorsement, even for those who are reviewing the books (or other consumer goods, as the case may be) independently. “The FTC expects that all disclosures be ‘clear and prominent’ meaning within each post in which an endorsement or material relationship is prevalent,” according to the blog. “It is not enough to post a blanket disclosure policy or comments regarding disclosure in sidebar, about, policy or contact sections.”

However, according to another blogger in attendance, “the FTC would focus their attention on Amazon or the other book stores about this and not the bloggers.” (That account from Charlotte’s Library also differs with the Galleysmith version in suggesting the question of disclosures for affiliate programs is not fully resolved.)

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