The Responsibility Project and the link with the FTC.

So Liberty Mutual is essentially calling out everyone, not really just bloggers (but bloggers are a huge means to their end), and trying to get people to "do the right thing".

This is drawing interesting parallels with what the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) wants bloggers to do. More on that in a second.

Liberty Mutual wants bloggers to be responsible and do the "right thing" but there is no legal obligation tied to it. People are going to say what they want, and I think that as long as they are true to themselves and speak in their blog the way they speak at home, they are blogging responsibly. If people don't like what they say, they'll go somewhere else. I do NOT think, however, that someone who is blogging and lying about who they are and how they think is being responsible. But that's the problem with the responsibility project: Freedom of Speech will enter it. Everyone has their own view of what is responsible and they will follow that.

Now then, what the FTC is doing DOES have legal obligations put into it. Bloggers are doing a lot of reviews and a lot of give-aways. With reviewing we have to look at it this way. Reviews are a sort of viral advertising. We put out an opinion on a product and then a bunch of people see it and go hmm, i like/dislike/don't care about this product. All this costs the company is the product itself. Now here is where bloggers are getting tripped up and freaking out.

The FTC doesn't care that we got something for free. They have stated this. What they DO want us to do, is report in the review that we received the product for free. This is called "truth in advertising" and it's a legal obligation for all advertisers. All that fine print at the bottom of any ad on tv you see is part of Truth in Advertising and they HAVE to put that info on there.

The FTC just wants bloggers to do the same. So why not do the fine print route? Put something in small text or have some sort of button linking to your fine print. Say something like, "Reviews here was based on a products that were received for free solely for the purposes of reviewing" and make it sound all legal-ese. Something! It really only makes sense.

So following the FTC might fall in line with Liberty Mutual's "Responsibility Project" but they are in no way tied together. But Truth in Advertising is definitely the right thing to do. Every other advertiser has to do it, bloggers should too really. Just don't force us too quickly or some people might stop blogging, and we don't need that.

What we do need, is truth in our reviews though. These companies have to understand that if we must follow the truth in advertising rules, we are going to review products HONESTLY. If we don't like the product, they are going to get some bad press. And at that point, tough shit. Any company needs to understand that they may or may not get bad press from any reviewer, not just a blog reviewer. But they should have the peace of mind that we will have our truth in advertising in place.

So why not put simple small text lines or a button linking to your policy as a reviewer at the end of our reviews? Something to let your readers know that you have standards, good ethics, and are a credible and honest reviewer? What's a couple of more seconds off your day?

It's worth it.

Websites of Interest:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512457,00.html
http://www.walletblog.com/2009/07/ftc-to-regulate-blog-endorsements/
http://www.responsibilityproject.com/

My fiancee does this now. She has an Ethical Blogger badge linking to her agreement to be an ethical blogger and review policy at the bottom of every review post. She is at:

http://www.reviewsandgiveaways.com/