4 ms·

Somehow, at some point in the last few months, I found myself reading a portion of a mid-1960s Federal Register that included capsule summaries of various small

Somehow, at some point in the last few months, I found myself reading a portion of a mid-1960s Federal Register that included capsule summaries of various small-bore enforcement actions the FTC took against misleading advertisers in the prior year - stuff like (and I’m making up illustrative examples here), say, a department store in Kansas City that put out an advertisement that omitted key information about a sale, or a hat-maker in Miami who lied about the origin of the materials he used. I loved it! I thought it was great that there was a federal agency focused on pro-consumer stuff like this that otherwise falls between the cracks of modern life. I’m glad to hear the mission of the agency remains intact.

nocoiner 3y ago
One additional thought, on an item FTA: “I’d like to see Instagram offer more accurate tags/labels, as there is a literal difference between getting a cardboard box and receiving money to express an opinion, but it will do for now.” Is it no longer customary to send back or donate a review copy of a product? When I reviewed video games many decades ago, we normally sent back the review copy we (the publication) were provided. For smaller ticket items, like music CDs, I don’t think were were ever required to send those back, but we either donated them or kept them on the publication’s shelves, but individual reviewers were definitely prohibited from keeping any of those as their personal property. I agree that there’s a distinction between a paid endorsement and reviewing something made freely available, but if there’s any personal benefit accruing to the reviewer, I do think that should be disclosed. And that why I think the absolutely best avoidance of conflicts of interest is to not accept even a review copy that must be later be returned or given away, but to pay for the item like any other consumer, though I acknowledge this is not always practical given publication budgets these days.
- Operyl 3y ago
  Typically no, unless the item was of substantial value (1k+) it’s usually just left with the reviewing party.
- chasontherobot 3y ago
  hard to donate a used steam key
  - Jochim 3y ago
    They can be revoked though.
- mjamesaustin 3y ago
  For board games, the shipping cost is often significant enough that it's better for the publisher to just let you keep the game than it is to pay for it to be shipped back.
  - eastbound 3y ago
    Claiming that the object was not a gift to the influencer has more value than shipping back. The influencer could be mandated to give it to the local board game club.
autoexec 3y ago
You can look at their website and see some of what they've been up to recently and a lot of it is really good stuff. I just wish they were more aggressive about going after companies ripping people off and that the penalties were actually meaningful. No company should be allowed to get caught over and over again pulling some kind of scam while only getting a slap on the wrist each time. There's some real low hanging fruit here: https://search.ftc.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&affiliate=ftc_prod&query=walmart&commit=Search https://search.ftc.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&affiliate=ftc_p... https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&query=amazon https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&qu... https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&query=AT%26T https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&qu... https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&query=Google&commit=Search https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&qu...

nocoiner 3y ago

One additional thought, on an item FTA: “I’d like to see Instagram offer more accurate tags/labels, as there is a literal difference between getting a cardboard box and receiving money to express an opinion, but it will do for now.” Is it no longer customary to send back or donate a review copy of a product? When I reviewed video games many decades ago, we normally sent back the review copy we (the publication) were provided. For smaller ticket items, like music CDs, I don’t think were were ever required to send those back, but we either donated them or kept them on the publication’s shelves, but individual reviewers were definitely prohibited from keeping any of those as their personal property. I agree that there’s a distinction between a paid endorsement and reviewing something made freely available, but if there’s any personal benefit accruing to the reviewer, I do think that should be disclosed. And that why I think the absolutely best avoidance of conflicts of interest is to not accept even a review copy that must be later be returned or given away, but to pay for the item like any other consumer, though I acknowledge this is not always practical given publication budgets these days.

Operyl 3y ago
Typically no, unless the item was of substantial value (1k+) it’s usually just left with the reviewing party.
chasontherobot 3y ago
hard to donate a used steam key
- Jochim 3y ago
  They can be revoked though.
mjamesaustin 3y ago
For board games, the shipping cost is often significant enough that it's better for the publisher to just let you keep the game than it is to pay for it to be shipped back.
- eastbound 3y ago
  Claiming that the object was not a gift to the influencer has more value than shipping back. The influencer could be mandated to give it to the local board game club.

autoexec 3y ago

You can look at their website and see some of what they've been up to recently and a lot of it is really good stuff. I just wish they were more aggressive about going after companies ripping people off and that the penalties were actually meaningful. No company should be allowed to get caught over and over again pulling some kind of scam while only getting a slap on the wrist each time. There's some real low hanging fruit here: https://search.ftc.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&affiliate=ftc_prod&query=walmart&commit=Search https://search.ftc.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&affiliate=ftc_p... https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&query=amazon https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&qu... https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&query=AT%26T https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&qu... https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&query=Google&commit=Search https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&qu...