FTC to Review Social Media-Related Ad Guidance, After Child Content Concerns
The FTC will review social media advertising guidance in 2020, the agency confirmed (see 2001300032) Thursday. It will consider updating ad endorsement and testimonial guidance involving unfair and deceptive ad laws the FTC polices.
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The agency disclosed plans in letters to Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Ed Markey, D-Mass.; and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. The three had asked the agency to investigate “undisclosed sponsorships and hidden advertising in child-directed YouTube videos and online content created by social media influencers,” recounted a December letter from Chairman Joe Simons.
Our publication obtained the correspondence through a Freedom of Information Act request. Blumenthal, Markey and Eshoo aired concerns about endorsements appearing on EvanTubeHD and Ryan ToysReview, which was recently renamed Ryan’s World. The lawmakers cited social media influencers with millions of viewers delivering child-directed videos they deemed ads for toys, movies and fast food. Prominent child-directed channels ignore general-industry FTC warnings, they said.
“Making effective disclosures to young children, who may have more difficulty distinguishing advertising from entertainment content, is both important and challenging,” Simons wrote Dec. 18. The agency will consider updates and modifications to the guidance, including endorser marketing aimed at children, Simons said.
The Association of National Advertisers will watch the development closely and comment if appropriate, said Executive Vice President-Government Relations Dan Jaffe on Thursday. Social media ad issues aren’t diminishing in importance, he said in an interview, noting the guidance enables content both consumers and businesses can trust.
The FTC wants to make clear that the views expressed in ads aren’t compromised, Jaffe said, with blurry lines between non-sponsored and sponsored content. ANA accepts that children aren’t “miniature adults,” but the agency needs to be careful about being “so restrictive” that commercials can’t be communicated to adults, he said.
Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood Executive Director Josh Golin said sponsored youth content raises issues. The average six-year-old isn’t going to understand sponsorship disclosures, so that type of targeting shouldn’t be allowed for child-directed content on YouTube, he said. Some of these videos wouldn’t be allowed on children’s time on TV stations, and it shouldn’t be any different online, he said. Google didn’t comment.
FTC endorsement and testimonial guidance was updated in October 2009. Expect the commission to solicit public comment on all aspects of the guidance, said Hunton Andrews attorney Phyllis Marcus, ex-FTC advertising practices chief of staff. That includes industry compliance costs, consumer benefits and what to possibly alter. Any potential changes to the guidance would probably require a second round of public feedback, she said. There are about 45 related FAQs on how to properly use endorsements in marketing, which were last updated in September 2017.