You know what’s worse than not having a big bag of M&Ms on your desk to enjoy while you work? Having to read a blogvertisement disguised as editorial content! Hold on, I have to eat some more M&Ms. Good gravy these are delicious. Did you know M&M’s cure malaria? It’s true! Anyway, the FTC says bloggers should reveal when they’re being compensated in some way to promote a product, and I agree.

Consumer Reports’ Money blog says that the FTC is updating its truth-in-advertising guidelines, which were last looked at in 1980, to include bloggers among those who have to reveal when they’re being compensated.

In other words, an advertiser who greases the palms of bloggers to fabricate “spontaneous” Internet buzz for his product or service can’t pretend that he’s not advertising. Blogs that promote products “are consumer endorsements. To the extent they’re paid for, they come under jurisdiction of FTC,” Richard Cleland, assistant director of the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices told me in a recent interview.

I would type more, but M&Ms are falling out of my mouth and onto the keyboard, making it difficult. You should go buy some. They are delicious.

“Is that blogger review really a paid ad? The FTC wants you to know.” [Consumer Reports Money & Shopping]
(Photo: Lin Pernille ? Photography)

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