• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 19, 2015

The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division on Monday expressed concerns about companies' increasing use of consumer reviews in ad campaigns.

"NAD recognizes that consumer reviews are being more widely used and disseminated by advertisers -- on advertiser and third party retailer websites and on social media -- and that consumers rely on these reviews in making purchasing decisions," the organization writes. "However, NAD is deeply troubled by the reliability of consumer reviews."

The group adds that it's often "difficult or impossible to determine whether a consumer has actually purchased or used the reviewed product, or to distinguish between verified versus unverified reviews."

The NAD indicated that it may address some of those "important policy issues" in the future, after it has compiled a "more robust record."

The comments come in an opinion examining a Scott's Lawn Care campaign that involved asking consumers to review a product in exchange for the opportunity to enter a $25 sweepstakes. The reviews didn't have to be positive for the authors to qualify for a sweepstakes entry. 

Many of the consumers who submitted reviews failed to disclose that they were enticed to write them, according to the BBB's self-regulatory unit. 

While the NAD concluded that Scott's "took sufficient and proper remedial steps upon learning of this problem," the group also expressed concerns about the campaign, which ran from April through July.

Scott's initial emails to consumers about the contest contained a link to its rules, which directed consumers to disclose that they were submitting reviews as part of a sweepstakes. But the text of the email itself didn't include a similar mandate, according to the NAD.

"Simply including the disclosure requirement in a link containing the Official Rules was not effective because, prior to Scotts’ remedial actions, few of the reviews which were posted ... included the required disclosure," the NAD writes.

After Scott's learned that consumers didn't disclose that they were entering a contest, the company added a "direct and prominent reminder" telling consumers to include the language "Sweepstakes Entry" in their posts, according to the NAD.

Scott's also arranged for BazaarVoice, which powered the review-submission platform, to insert "tags" -- additional language at the bottom of the review, stating that it was submitted as a sweepstakes entry -- in all reviews that were posted as part of the contest.

In addition, Scott's ran a disclaimer on its site until July 2015. That disclaimer, in bold, stated: "Reviews drafted on or after April 20, 2015 may have been submitted as part of an ongoing sweepstakes."

The NAD said those steps sufficiently remedied the initial lack of disclaimers. The organization added: "In the future, when product reviews (i.e. endorsements) have been incentivized, NAD expects the advertiser to take similar steps to ensure that the reviews clearly and conspicuously disclose that there exists a material connection between the endorser and the advertiser."