According to a Chicago Tribune article, the Federal Trade Commission wants to change the rules for endorsements in advertising. From the article:
Consumers lured by advertisements promising rock-hard abs, sparkling
white teeth and bulging bank accounts soon may get a reality check.
Updated guidelines on ad endorsements and testimonials under final
review by the Federal Trade Commission—and widely expected to be
adopted—would end marketers' ability to talk up the extreme benefits of
products while carrying disclaimers like "results not typical" or
"individual results may vary."
Instead, companies would be allowed to tout extreme results only if they also spelled out typical outcomes.
"For a good part of the last decade, we have noticed a problem,
particularly with consumer testimonials," said Richard Cleland,
assistant director of the FTC's division of advertising practices. "The
use of consumer testimonials had become almost a safe harbor for
companies as long as they threw in some sort of disclaimer about
results not being typical."
Of course, this is significant news for advertisers - especially those who rely on atypical results to attract consumers to their products and services. A post about the Trib article on Consumerist suggests that Subway spokesman Jared Fogle (pictured) may soon be out of a job due to the proposed FTC rule. That's potentially bad news for Jared, but the demand for transparency from marketers is good news for consumers.
Image: AP photo by Ivan Chavez, August 7, 2001 - via Chicago Tribune.
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