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Yes, writing fake reviews is illegal. False advertising is a misdemeanor crime Does this mean those Amazon affiliate sites are illegal too? A lot of these site

by vijayr 11y ago

Yes, writing fake reviews is illegal. False advertising is a misdemeanor crime Does this mean those Amazon affiliate sites are illegal too? A lot of these sites review products as if they have used the them, but there is no way they could've paid real money for the dozens of products they review? Also, how is this different from celebrities endorsing products and appearing in ads? How do we know they bothered to use the product even once, other than the time they were shooting for the ad?

wpietri 11y ago
My guess is that most celebrity endorsements happen after at least some examination of the product. After all, celebrities have brands to protect too. And I imagine their endorsements are carefully worded; it's only false advertising when somebody says something that isn't true. Of course, as you demonstrate here, there's at least some public understanding that celebrity endorsements aren't actually reviews, so a good lawyer would argue that since you don't expect celebrity endorsements to be factually true, they couldn't possibly be false advertising.
icebraining 11y ago
Does this mean those Amazon affiliate sites are illegal too? A lot of these sites review products as if they have used the them, but there is no way they could've paid real money for the dozens of products they review? There are probably plenty of fakes, but if you're successful, brands will send you their products for you to review.
DanBC 11y ago
Some people are given free product in return for a good review. In England you must make it very clear if content is your regular content of if it's sponsored content. This is hard for YouTubers to comply with because a big pre-roll splash probably isn't enough. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30203816 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30203816 http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/26/vloggers-must-tell-fans-paid-adverts-asa-rules http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/26/vloggers-must-t... https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-Centre/2014/Making-ads-Clear-The-challenge-for-advertisers-and-vloggers.aspx#.VfrjVk-CPTo https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-Centre/2014/Maki...

by vijayr 11y ago

wpietri 11y ago

My guess is that most celebrity endorsements happen after at least some examination of the product. After all, celebrities have brands to protect too. And I imagine their endorsements are carefully worded; it's only false advertising when somebody says something that isn't true. Of course, as you demonstrate here, there's at least some public understanding that celebrity endorsements aren't actually reviews, so a good lawyer would argue that since you don't expect celebrity endorsements to be factually true, they couldn't possibly be false advertising.

icebraining 11y ago

Does this mean those Amazon affiliate sites are illegal too? A lot of these sites review products as if they have used the them, but there is no way they could've paid real money for the dozens of products they review? There are probably plenty of fakes, but if you're successful, brands will send you their products for you to review.

DanBC 11y ago

Some people are given free product in return for a good review. In England you must make it very clear if content is your regular content of if it's sponsored content. This is hard for YouTubers to comply with because a big pre-roll splash probably isn't enough. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30203816 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30203816 http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/26/vloggers-must-tell-fans-paid-adverts-asa-rules http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/26/vloggers-must-t... https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-Centre/2014/Making-ads-Clear-The-challenge-for-advertisers-and-vloggers.aspx#.VfrjVk-CPTo https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-Centre/2014/Maki...