#Ad Disclosure 101 for Creators
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for regulating advertising in the United States. They set the rules for how you let your audience know if you’re being paid to promote a brand, or disclosure. Disclosure is important. Not only does it help your audience trust you, but it’s also necessary in order to protect yourself and the brand from any potential legal action.
Though it may sound complicated, the rules are simple and easy to follow. The FTC handbook, Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers, gives you all the info.
And here are the guidelines for disclosure when participating in an Obviously campaign.
Disclosures are required whenever you have a financial, employment, personal, or family relationship with a brand. According to the FTC, Financial relationships aren’t just limited to money - they also apply to gifts, free product, or experiences.
Disclosure must be clear and easy to understand. You should always put disclosure in the caption of your post, not the comments, but you do have several options for how you can let your audience know about your relationship with a brand. These options include:
You can obviously use a well-known hashtag in the caption, such as #ad or #sponsored.
You can say you’re a “partner” or “ambassador” of a brand. For example, #UltaBeautyAmbassador instead of #sponsored is fine.
You can thank a brand for sending you a free product.
Disclosure is best placed before the jump.
You should try to put any FTC-required information before a viewer would have to expand your caption by clicking “more” because not all viewers will click past to see the remaining text.
Product review guidelines
It’s illegal to review a product you haven’t tried.
If you’re paid to review a product and you didn’t like it, you can’t say that you loved it. That’s misrepresentation and it’s illegal.
You can’t make claims about a product that require proof that the advertiser doesn’t have, such as scientific evidence that the product can treat a health condition..
Video guidelines
In general, any required disclosures or disclaimers should be presented in a form or format comparable to the primary content itself.
If you’re creating video content for a brand, the optimal way to disclose is to include superimposed text in one point of the video that the viewer is likely to see. For example, placing it on the screen at the beginning of the video. Placing it at the very end, after the viewer may have scrolled past, is not the best choice of placement.
Finally, we’re always here to answer your questions about this or any other aspect of a campaign. Get in touch!