Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, the Office of Fair Trading is reportedly cracking down on bloggers and Twitter users who exploit their "influencer" status to endorse products or services without
acknowledging their relationship with a brand. Case in point, the government's consumer watchdog has brought a case against a PR firm that was discovered to be paying bloggers to write "effusively"
about its clients, the
Guardian reports.
In a statement, the OFT said online
advertising and marketing that did not disclose paid-for promotions were "deceptive" under fair trading rules. As the Guardian points out, "Celebrity twitter endorsements are already big business in
the US, where artists such as Snoop Dogg can earn a reported $3,000 for sending a tweet endorsing a product." The US Federal Trade Commission already requires that such endorsements must contain the
words "ad" or "spon," while such conditions do not currently exist in the UK.
Read the whole story at The Guardian »