FTC and Celeb Endorsements

I say, good! I have no love for the FTC in general, but I'm on their side in this case.

If a celebrity is being paid vast sums to endorse a pimple cream, for instance, and said pimple cream actually causes faces to melt, the celeb should bear some responsibility too. The mark consumer probably wouldn't have paid $19.99 without the celeb endorsement, right?

FTC May Go After Celeb Endorsements :
Celebrities and consumers making incredible-sounding claims in ads may soon get new scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC, which some say has gotten more combative of late, is considering tightening the rules, which could affect everything from celebs' claims about brands on talk shows to fact-checking assertions of weight loss in ads.
.. Nevertheless, a ruling on the issue could affect many. For instance, weight-loss brand Nutri-System is running a TV campaign featuring former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino and former coach Don Shula. Marino claims he lost 22 pounds on the diet and Shula claims 32. The ads say, “Results not typical,” but it is difficult for viewers to figure out what “typical” would actually be. Text in two ads viewed by Brandweek was displayed on the screen for about a second—and was thus unreadable.

In addition to the Marino-Shula endorsements, NutriSystem's Web site carries testimonials from customers who say they lost between 30 and 101 pounds, but it doesn't say what an average user can expect. The only indication of what a “typical” result might be occurs when a customer is ready to place an order. There's a button that states: “I need to lose more than 10 lbs.”
...
But many echoed the sentiment of Phil Klein, a partner at New York law firm Klein & Liss, who said he didn't think disclaimers or any other type of disclosure would lead brands to reconsider using famous faces. “It's never gonna happen,” said Klein, who has represented Jay Z., Eminem and P. Diddy's licensing ventures. “If there has to be an asterisk somewhere, so be it, but pop culture drives our society. For better or worse, celebrities are our culture.”

and I'm amused by this:

So far, marketers have had little input in the process. (Nor has anyone else—the agency's only gotten three letters so far on the issue, all from private citizens.) None of the major industry lobby groups have submitted comments to the FTC on its rules review, and no individual companies have commented either. The FTC last month even extended the comment time through mid-June.

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