Disclosure Rules: When to Disclose

1. When you are paid to endorse a product or service through social media, you have a Material Connection with the seller of the product or service. This material connection must be disclosed to those who view your social media endorsements (ads). Panel has engaged you to promote products and services to your audience, so a material connection exists and disclosure of the relationship is required.

2. Do not assume your audience knows that you are being paid to endorse products and services you include in your posts. It is your responsibility to disclose the material connection to your audience, otherwise you risk potential personal liability for failing to do so.

3. Keep in mind that tags, likes, pins, and similar ways of showing you like a brand or product are endorsements (and a material connection exists if you are getting paid to do it)

Disclosure Rules: How to Disclose a Material Connection

1. Make sure the disclosure is difficult to miss.

2. Make sure your audience understands the disclosure. Use simple, clear language.

3. Terms like “advertisement”, “ad”, “paid endorsement” and “sponsored” are good examples to use. Hashtags are not required but can be used, such as #ad or #sponsored.

Disclosure Rules: Where to Disclose a Material Connection

1. If your endorsement is in a picture on a platform like Snapchat or Instagram Stories, superimpose the disclosure over the picture and make sure viewers have enough time to read it.

2. If making an endorsement in a video, the disclosure should be in the video and not just in the description uploaded with the video. Viewers are more likely to notice disclosures made in both audio and video. Some viewers may watch without sound and others may not notice superimposed words.

3. If making an endorsement in a live stream, the disclosure should be repeated periodically so viewers who only see part of the stream will get the disclosure.

Disclosure Rules: What Else?

1. Do not talk about your personal experience, directly or indirectly, with a product or service if you have not tried that product or service. For example, if creating a video endorsing a new Bluetooth speaker and you have not tried it, you cannot legitimately promote the Bluetooth speaker based on your personal experience.

2. Do not make up claims about a product or service that cannot be substantiated by the advertiser. For example, you cannot endorse a streaming service and claim that it has access to “millions of movies” unless the service can prove it has access to millions of movies.

Questions and Comments

Please feel free to send your disclosure-related comments or questions to contact@pnnl.xyz.