Recently the Federal Trade Commission published its “Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”  The guide gives an overview of the new FTC rule which imposes requirements on companies that use endorsements and testimonials in their advertising.  We are providing here and short description of the new guidelines for your review.

The new FTC guideline, which can be found at http://bit.ly/4qfcpi, states that when a company is using an endorsement or testimonial in advertising, that the endorsement must reflect the honest opinions, findings, beliefs or experience of the endorser(s).  In the event that an endorser has used the product in question, the company must make sure that while the advertisement is running that the endorser is still a user of the product and still maintains the same opinion of the product.

A big area for advertisers to think about in the FTC rule is that when his or her advertisement is about consumer opinions, there must be enough proof that the endorser’s opinions are representative of all general consumers as well.

We hope that you have found this information valuable, and always remember that we welcome comments and if you would like to contact our offices to discuss franchising, we can be reached in our Tampa, Florida office at 813-625-9590 or our Austin, Texas office at 512-535-0090.