Deathmatch: FTC vs. Internet Marketers

AdAge reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is another step closer to a new policy that start regulating viral marketing and weblogs.

The government wants to have its hands in everything these days, and apparently the goal is to distinguish so called “paid posts” on blogs from those that are not paid advertisements of ay sort.

Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC’s advertising-practices division had this to say:

“The commission is attempting to update guidelines that are 30 years old so that they address current marketing techniques, and in particular to address the issue of whether or not the safe harbor that’s currently allowed for ‘result not typical’-type disclaimers is still warranted.”

The one positive from this is that bloggers who post unpaid reviews could see a boost in credibility.

Jim Nail, chief marketing officer of TNS Media Intelligence adds:

“The thing that makes word-of-mouth marketing powerful is people believing they are getting truthful and honest opinions from real users. If people start disbelieving word-of-mouth marketing as much as they disbelieve advertising, we are in deep trouble.”