In this morning's Marketing Brew newsletter, the below news snippet was posted regarding the FTC suit against Google and iHeartMedia for deceptive ads promoting the Pixel 4 smartphone.
The suit alleges that influencers were paid to make statements about a product that they never actually used, and recorded testimonials before they were even sent the product.
While scrolling on social media, tags like #ad and #sponsored make it painfully obvious when influencers are making paid statements about products that they clearly do not endorse on a daily basis. I'd bet that the majority of these influencers still use iPhones every day. As consumers of these ads, we're not fooled when we see influencers promoting a new beauty product or vitamin supplement; we know they were offered these products for free, and that they are being paid for endorsements.
In order for influencers to truly build community, their audience must trust their advice - and that it comes from a place of credibility and authenticity.
Something like a Pixel smartphone - which these influencers were so blatantly not using and would likely never use - is a perfect example of a failed attempt at influencer marketing. A smartphone is not a consumable or discoverable product like beauty, fashion or food. It's a device that for the majority of consumers, represents a medium-term purchase at a mid-to-high price point. There is less "test driving," and more research-driven purchasing, and so the idea that an influencer would switch their entire OS for a paid endorsement (unlike switching their lip gloss brand) is unreasonable.
Though we know it's all a sham, there are degrees of credibility we still expect from influencer marketing. Rules of the road that govern these influencers from an ethical perspective, and now, from a legal perspective as well. The FTC allocating attention to companies breaking these rules, when the very nature of the ad itself is so fundamentally untrue, reflects the gradiation of truth within influencer marketing.
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[reposted from Marketing Brew newsletter 11/29/2022] Google and iHeartMedia have settled with the FTC and
seven states over allegations they were stingy with influencers. On Monday, the commission said it believes the two
companies paid influencers (in this case, on-air radio talent) to promote
Google’s Pixel 4 smartphone in testimonials without ever actually providing
them with the phone in the first place. “Google and iHeartMedia paid influencers to promote
products they never used, showing a blatant disrespect for
truth-in-advertising rules,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of
Consumer Protection, said in an announcement. According to the complaint, Google spent
approximately $4.6 million with iHeartMedia and 11 other radio networks to
“have on-air personalities record and broadcast endorsements of the Pixel 4”
between 2019 and 2020, resulting in “29,000 deceptive endorsements by radio
personalities” that ran across the US; Google provided them with scripts that
included the following
Ultimately, those were “misleading endorsements,”
according to the FTC. As part of the settlement, Google and iHeartMedia
have agreed to pay a total of $9.4 million to Arizona, California, Georgia,
Illinois, New York, Texas, and Massachusetts, which sued the companies with
the FTC. “We are pleased to resolve this issue. We take
compliance with advertising laws seriously and have processes in place
designed to help ensure we follow relevant regulations and industry
standards,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda wrote to Marketing Brew over
email; iHeartMedia declined to comment. Zoom out: Testimonials are a tried-and-true
advertising strategy. They’re basically unavoidable in podcast ads, for
example. The FTC is making it clear that it expects companies to follow truth-in-advertising rules.
However, Google and iHeartMedia are bigger fish than your average DTC brand.
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