Companies have been supplying bloggers with free products in return for press, positive or otherwise. K-mart and Chris Brogan hooked up last December, for instance. Now the FTC wants to regulate these instances to ensure consumers aren’t duped. According to Financial Times: Revised guidelines on endorsements and testimonials by the Federal Trade Commission, now under [...]

Since FreeCreditReport.com is not free, is sponsored by Experian, and pays The Martin Agency a gazillion dollars to flood the airwaves, the FTC decided to strike back by promoting AnnualCreditReport.com, the service that legitimately lets you access a free credit report per year from each of the Big 3 credit services. I’m guessing the FTC’s [...]

I once had a client that was busted on several news shows for bait-and-switch advertising. But it didn’t stop them and they didn’t care. In fact, they’re still doing the same advertising, years later. Over at Tribble Ad Agency, they’re tired of the ad campaign run by LifeLock and its CEO, who has advertised his [...]

The party and hangover have long been gone, but the bill is now due on Wacker Drive. According to Lewis Lazare: Leo Burnett agreed on Tuesday to pay the United States a whopping $15.5 million to settle a federal “whistleblower” civil lawsuit first filed under seal some 4½ years ago in U.S. District Court in [...]

Anthony Michaels of San Diego is bummed. He thought his classmates were trying to reconnect with him. That’s what the emails from Classmates.com said. Michaels paid for a premium membership at Classmates.com but he now claims the firm was just fishing for business, and that there were no old friends from school on the other [...]

Ad Age spoke to Dick O’Brien, exec VP of the American Association of Advertising Agencies about an Obama presidency’s impact on the ad biz. U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who could be chief of staff in an Obama administration, talked to the 4A’s board of directors several weeks ago. “He predicted that the first order [...]

Taco Bell got a bit too cute for its own good when it asked 50 Cent to change his name to 79 Cent, 89 Cent or 99 Cent, in deference to the prices on its new value menu. Now the lawyers for both sides will have to make it right. According to Ad Age, the [...]

According to Ad Age, Word-of-mouth marketing in the U.K. will face radical restrictions starting May 26, when it will become a criminal offense for brands to seed positive messages online without making the origin of the message clear. The rules make it an offense to blog, use brand ambassadors or seed viral ads while “falsely [...]

According to The Wall Street Journal, Woody Allen filed a lawsuit Monday seeking more than $10 million from clothier American Apparel Inc. over unauthorized billboard and online advertisements featuring the actor and director dressed as a rabbi. image courtesy of Curbed The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleges the Los Angeles clothing [...]