FTC Releases New Guidelines on Testimonials - Texas Journal of Chiropractic

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FTC Releases New Guidelines on Testimonials

Published 11/24/2009 - 5:13 a.m. CDT

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports on its website here, that it has published “final guides” governing endorsements, and testimonials, and that these changes will affect testimonial advertisements, bloggers, and celebrity endorsements. The FTC announces that: “it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.”

“Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.”

“The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.”

“Celebrity endorsers also are addressed in the revised Guides....both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.”

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Published 07/27/2010 - 8:00 a.m. CDT

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Private Money?

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New types of currency are popping up in the form of precious metal coins from private mints.

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A new transfer program between Spartanburg Community College and Sherman College of Chiropractic has been made official. SCC students can now combine an associate of science degree with a 26-credit pre-chiropractic certificate that will fulfill Sherman's undergraduate requirements.

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Published 06/29/2010 - 5:38 a.m. CDT

A guest editorial by Dr. Clem Martin of Bonham, Texas asks a very good question: Have we succumbed to addictive simplicity which reduces our "science and art" to merely a mindless technique?

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The American Medical Association met in convention this past week and set about establishing their officers, policies, and objectives for the coming year. We thought that we would share with you a very small amount of the wide ranging content that the AMA considered. These include:

on a 21 person board nearly 20% are from the State of Texas.
AMA says "we have the opportunity to assure that our county’s health care system bears the imprint of physicians..."
and that they..."focus on improving the health care system for patients and physicians"
AMA notes "four leading challenges to our health care system..." it is likely that medical physicians and their patients will seek to profit at the expense of other healing arts practitioners.
The AMA will seek public funding for medical physicians and their patients to the exclusion of other healing arts practitioners.
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As the AMA states: "Since 1847 the American Medical Association (AMA) has had one mission: to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health. Today, the core strategy used to carry out this mission is our concerted effort to help [medical] doctors help [their] patients."

The mission of the AMA, the self-proclaimed "organized medicine" is "medicine" and not "healing arts" promotion. We can only hope that the leadership of our state and nation awaken to this fact as they develop public health policy.

Read more in this article.

Diagnosis and the "Cash Practice"

Published 06/17/2010 - 5:10 a.m. CDT

It has been common of late for some healing arts practitioners to state "so what if the TMA succeeds in hijacking the word diagnosis? It won't change how I practice--I just won't take insurances." The question is then will an adverse outcome on the ability of healing arts practitioners other than MD/DOs to render a "diagnosis" have an adverse effect on a practitioner who does not deal with third-party payers? The answer is yes it will.

Read more in this article.

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