by Jack Burke
You’ve seen the ads with the “before” photo of the flabby guy or woman next to the “after” photo with the same person, now with rock-hard abs. Somewhere in that ad touting the greatest weight loss/muscle building concoction were these words: “results may vary.”
You won’t be seeing that phrase any more. At least you shouldn’t.
The Federal Trade Commission recently updated its advertising guidelines in part to deal with the explosion of Social Media marketing that’s going on today. The guidelines, which inform everything from BBB decisions to legal action by state attorneys general, hadn’t been revised since 1980.
One big change involves the old stand-by “results may vary.” Now, product endorsements—whether in print, on blogs, Facebook or anywhere else—must show the typical representative of what the particular product achieves and not outliers. If an atypical example is used, that must be clearly and conspicuously pointed out.
The advertising guidelines also stress that marketing communications through Social Media need to clearly state business relationships. So when some Hollywood star is talking up a product on his blog or Twitter account, you’ll know he’s a paid shill.
Of course, results may vary.
