Pages

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Wild World of Wednesday - October 7, 2009



In Case You Didn't Know: The FTC is cracking down on bloggers and others that receive promotional items. Bloggers, like magazine journalists and others, receive items from companies to review at no charge from time to time. A new (or even existing) product/book/etc. will come out and send review items to various sources to generate buzz. Just because someone sends something out, it does not guarantee a good review. The FTC wants everyone to be clear that they received said item for review at no charge. So there is no confusion - many of the products and books that I review have been sent to me free of charge. I've been sent books, movies, golf accessories, shirts, key chains, and probably a few other items that I can't think of right now. My reviews are always straight up and I don't think I needlessly fawn all over anything. Every so often I mention products, services, stores, courses, and others that I paid for myself. Just to keep everyone happy and in the know, I'll make sure that I clearly distinguish between these things in future posts. In addition, I will author some blanket fine print that will appear on this front page.

Almost Over:
You only have until Friday to enter the Andy Murray contest. Since it takes a minute to generate your entry I haven't received as many as I normally do so your chances of winning are very good! You could win a cool new racket, bag, or wristbands. Enter now!

Oh, and in the interest of clarity - the company has not sent me any merchandise nor have they paid me to run this contest. They will also be sending the prizes directly to the winners.

Today In Sports History

1988 - Lou Piniella is fired as manager of Yankees for second time

1992 - Tampa Bay Lightning become first NHL expansion team to win opener (7-2)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great government. Truth in advertising is a joke - so what do they do to fix it ? They go after the people who get a pitence to test and talk about products.

The only thing this does is get the government one step closer to controlling every outlet of free speech.

Apryl DeLancey said...

It seems like there would be more important things to do, eh?

Lindsay said...

I think any good blogger will make it clear when a review was paid for or when they received a free product for review. I try to make that clear on my blog as well.

I don't think it should be mandatory though. I think people should be able to do whatever they want on their own blogs. If someone doesn't like it, then they don't have to read it!

Apryl DeLancey said...

Great point Lindsay!