Thursday, June 11, 2009

Blogvertisement Rules Coming?

Found on Consumerist.com last night, Consumerist says (via Consumer Reports) that the Federal Trade Commission is proposing to require bloggers to post whether or not they have received payment or compensation to post and or discuss an item on said blog.

Personally I think this it's only right that bloggers tell people when they have received compensation to review/discuss/promote items on a blog. Here on my blog, I will put a note in the post and in the tags on the bottom of the post if I've received a promotional copy (arc or galley) of a book. I do very few of these. The majority of books reviewed or discussed here are either owned by me or a member of my family, was a gift or was borrowed from the library.

What do you think?

6 comments:

Holly said...

How would they ever enforce such a lofty goal? Its just not practical.

Marg said...

I don't really mind at books, but really hate those adverts where someone tries to write a story around them (i.e I went and bought my Brand X shoes and you really should too). Hate those!

Bob & Muffintop said...

Holly~ Good question. I agree with you, the application of this proposed rule will be difficult. I can see why people would want to do this, though.


Marg~ Yes, those are annoying.

~Amanda

CindyS said...

I haven't seen the kind Marg is talking about but I think it's a good idea. Hard to police but hey, maybe the principal will be enough to get people to pony up details on what they 'get' for discussing something.

I've only ever won an ARC and it was part of the guidelines that a review would be appreciated. It didn't say it had to be a good review - luckily for me I loved the book ;)

For the most part, if I don't say I won the book then I've bought the book. I do so love to own my books ;)

What would be interesting though are those blogs that might be pimping a technology based item but what we don't know is that they were given the item for free in return for discussing it.

Cindys

Louise said...

I don't believe this will ever be relevant to me. I have never received anything, let alone a book, and I don't think I will receive anything. I also book-blog in Danish, and even though one should think Danish publishers were anxious to get business growing, they haven't yet figured out how to ask bloggers to review etc.

All books I talk about are owned and bought by myself/as gifts or from the library.

Bob & Muffintop said...

CindyS~ I too would like to know when tech review bloggers have received an item for review, preferably while reading their reviews. The NYT circuits columns always say if they've been given an item to "road test". Why can't everyone else??

Louise~ Maybe you could pick a Danish publisher & email them & ask for review copies for upcoming releases. You'd be offering free publicity after all!

Happy reading!~

Amanda