Were YOU Compensated?

This morning I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Bittersweet, and there was a post on there titled "Review Rant". It was a great read and it really opened my eyes to the new FTC laws that were recently updated. These new regulations really bother me. I feel that they are a direct violation of our first amendment rights. I can see that the new regulations have good intentions to prevent biased reviews and endorsements, but when the government steps in and begins to regulate how you share your opinions of products as a private citizen, I feel it goes too far.

I agree that it is wrong to write a positive review on an inferior product because you received the product for free or some other compensation. I agree that if you do receive free product from a company you should mention it along with your review, but I think that it is a little crazy to slap an $11,000 fine on anyone who fails to do so. I realize that for now the only real effect on bloggers is that if you received any type of compensation from a company, you have to state that in a review of that company's products. You also have to state if you are connected to that company in any way. I feel that by allowing these regulations to be put in effect, it opens a door for more strict regulation in the future. What next? You have to have a legal disclaimer before saying something nice about your husband because he bought you a nice Christmas present. I realize that comparing these two things is crazy, but I feel that a compromise of our rights is a compromise none the less.

I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I feel that when the FTC updated these regulations, it was not with the intention of protecting consumers. I believe that it was to protect the multi-trillion dollar marketing industry that has been worried about losing revenue to these "non-traditional" marketing outlets. The truth is that a lot of these smaller companies don't have the money to pay for "traditional" advertisement and they have turned to much cheaper methods. I really admire this because I feel that a good product will eventually make a name for itself and a huge marketing budget is a slap in the face to the consumer saying "look how much money we make off of you, we can throw it around with super expensive advertising campaigns."

I feel that these new poorly written regulations are an attempt to scare bloggers away from reviewing products. I feel that they are poorly written on purpose to leave large grey areas so people will feel that it is better to be safe than sorry and not risk a large fine just for saying how they feel about a product. From now on if I buy a product then mention how much I like it, do I have to say that I did not receive any compensation from them just so there will be no question that I am not in violation of the law? Or for that matter if you are wearing a certain brand T-shirt in a picture on your blog do you now have to state that they did not pay you to advertise for them to avoid a hefty fine?

Something was said in a comment on Hannah's blog about reviews not being all inclusive because they don't take into account all the competition. I say that these reviews are not made to do all the research and legwork for you. Even if they were, you would have to be a fool to base your decision off of one person's opinion be it biased or unbiased.

There have been reviews of products written on this blog and I agree with Hannah that it is a lot of work to do a review. Even before I learned of these new regulations I had determined that it is not worth it to receive free products because the time and effort that goes into trying to write an unbiased review is not worth as much to me as the cost of the product. If I want something I will go and buy it. If I love it enough to recommend it to my friends, I will. I also like to research a product before I buy it and blogs that review these products have been a lifesaver. So if that's what you enjoy doing, you should be able to say what you like without fear of reprisal from the government or anyone else. You should also feel free to do this without having a "rulebook" or a legal department to back you up. After all this is a FREE country.