Native Advertising in Social Media: Is the FTC’s “Reasonable Consumer” Reasonable?

Abstract

This note explores native advertising – advertising that has a semblance of editorial content – on social media how the Federal Trade Commission has struggled to address concerns about the ethical implications of the practice. Shirooni argues that the “reasonable consumer” test used by the FTC to determine whether an advertisement is deceptive is both outdated and too broad in the context of social media and proposes a modification of the test to fit the expectations of the typical user of social media applications.

Keywords

native advertising, celebrity endorsements, Federal Trade Commission, social media, endorsement guides, Dot Com disclosures, scrolling, deceptively formatted, policy statement

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Authors

Celine Shirooni (J.D. (2018) Washington University School of Law)

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