Guidelines for product endorsement and sponsorship or advertising

[polepole]

We've been getting quite a bit of feedback lately about either potentially misleading endorsements and/or "affiliated industry people" (sponsored, shop owner, manufacturers, writers) making statements about product without a clear distinction whether they have a "skin in the game".

Here at NCKA we'd like to following these guidelines as recommended by the FTC.

http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus71-ftcs-revised-endorsement-guideswhat-people-are-asking

The gist of it is in the introductory paragraph.

Suppose you meet someone who tells you about a great new product. It performs exactly as advertised and offers fantastic new features. Would that endorsement factor into your decision to buy the product? Probably.

Now suppose you learn that the person works for the company that sells the product – or has been paid by the company to tout the product. Would you want to know that when you’re evaluating the endorser’s glowing recommendation? You bet. That common-sense premise is at the heart of the revised Endorsement Guides issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency.

The revised Guides – issued after public comment and consumer research – reflect three basic truth-in-advertising principles:

Endorsements must be truthful and not misleading;

If the advertiser doesn’t have proof that the endorser’s experience represents what consumers will achieve by using the product, the ad must clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected results in the depicted circumstances; and

If there’s a connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, it should be disclosed.

Since the FTC issued the revised Guides, advertisers, ad agencies, bloggers, and others have sent questions to endorsements@ftc.gov. Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.

The official guidelines are here ... http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf

What does that mean here at NCKA?  Here is our distillation of the general guidelines.

If you are directly representing a particular product, either sponsored or otherwise employed, we ask that that affiliation be displayed in your signature.  If you are commenting on product that you received directly from the manufacturer at a discount (at pro rates or for review), or you are paid to review said product, we ask that you disclose that affiliation whenever you make statements endorsing the product.

Along these lines, NCKA is not a place for free advertising.  If you give to the community (you know what that means, don't make us spell that out) you are more than welcome to do some amount of "soft advertising", but please don't put the hard sell on.  If you are here repeatedly only pushing your products, well, DON'T DO THAT!!!  If you'd like to pay for advertising or donate products for NCKA events in exchange for advertising, contact admin@ncka.org and we can have a discussion.

If you see someone abusing the above guidelines, don't hassle them.  Use the "Report to moderator" button and if appropriate, one of us will take care of it.

-The NCKA Team

[Eric B]

Good to know, cuz I'm hoping for a sponsorship with Zebco and PBR someday.

[Dale L]

Sounds like a good idea to me, I would guess that we should see some changes popping up in signature lines pretty soon.

[chaeki]

I have 3 banners rotating

youtube channel: it makes no money, I just have it to show how I hang out with NCKA

banksboard: no affiliation, other than I help the creator John with computer stuff and I love his board

santa cruz kayaks:  no affiliation, Jim let me borrow it for a few weeks, and I am enjoying testing it out for the family

Let me know if there is some rule I missed, I am not the type to break rules, as you know..

Thanks, chaeki

[Mooch]

this is gonna be easy .. i know of a repeat "soft advertising" offender that doesn't really give to the community..

report 'em and we thank you for getting involved. WE all need to take part in keeping this site that way it is  Let's keep taking the trash out and try to keep this place clean....well, as much as we can at least

[Salty.]

What I have to say I will say here where everyone can read it. 



I do not use the NCUH forum but I have friends that I dive with that do. They say it's a good thing. But creating a zillion threads here on NCKA to promote it.....well all I can say is that I've had to work hard to ignore most of them. The whole "Only take the ten incher's" mantra just sounded a little elitest, intimidating, and unfriendly to me. Shit it took me forever to get my first nine. That being said  I don't know why a happy medium can't be reached such as a mutual advertising deal where the Norcal Underwater Hunter's logo with link appears on NCKA and then a NCKA logo and link appears on NCUH. Maybe that would stop the spam-monster within and introduce some divers to kayakfishing and vice-versa. There is already a pretty good sized group of NCKA guys that are more into the diving than the kayakfishing and so now I would like to see the same thing over on NCUH.....only reversed. jim

[Lingless Pig]

well i can repost, just wasnt sure this was the right spot after fully reading allens message, so i took er down..

[agarcia]

Thank You Allen.

Also, not to go all Mooch on everyone but be mindful that if you're gonna post a review or cross promote an event here be sure that its in the right area and don't plaster it accross multiple forums......I assure you, we can see it.   

[DaveW]

Hey, a while back weren't Art and Mooch trying to pedal some type of snake-oil that made your mojo work better--on this very site?  I'm just sayin'

[Sin Coast]

Good to know, cuz I'm hoping for a sponsorship with Zebco and PBR someday.