The FTC has launched an initiative that they titled, “Operation Full Disclosure” a short time ago. The initiative is focused on making sure advertisers are making adequate disclosures in their advertisement campaigns. The FTC seems to be ramping up the enforcement and other efforts related to this initiative, they have just recently sent out warning letters to over 60 companies, including many of the largest advertising firms in the country.
The letters pointed out problems with important information that was missing, misleading information in the fine print, or having information too hard to find within the advertisement. They also pointed out that many advertisers are listing a specific price for a product or service, but then leave out the ‘strings attached’ that could include contracts or other things that the consumer likely doesn’t want.
This first round of letters focused primarily on advertisers who are using TV and print ads, but the same concepts will apply to all digital marketing as well. With this in mind, it is a good idea for all performance marketers to keep up to date with this type of story, so they don’t fall victim to the FTC.
This is especially important because the FTC will likely consider this first round of warnings a sufficient ‘heads up’ to marketers. This means they may come down harder on anyone who they find still violating their full disclosure policies, which could spell serious trouble for your business.
To help companies stay in line with the FTC requirements, Lesley Fair (an FTC official) blogged some suggestions on how to ensure your disclosures of important information are sufficient. She called these the ‘4Ps’ of disclosure, which I’ll summarize here:
- Prominence – The disclosure must be big enough to easily read, and must also be displayed for a sufficient amount of time to see them.
- Presentation – How is the disclosure or other information worded? If it is phrased in such ‘legal speak’ that the average consumer can’t understand it, than that is likely going to be a problem.
- Placement – The location where the disclosure is placed is very important. It should be on a spot where the average consumer is likely to notice it.
- Proximity – The disclosure must be located near the claim or product that it is discussing. For example, if you have ‘Free Shipping’ printed in bold at the top of an ad, and then a disclosure at the bottom in small print saying that they must spend $100 to get free shipping, it might raise some red flags.
