New FTC rules screw Jared, Bowflex granny

The long-awaited FTC guidelines concerning the "use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising" were posted today, and they're sure to get lots of buzz for their first-ever rules for bloggers, including mandatory disclosure of paid reviews. But the real game-changer may be the crackdown on the use of "Results not typical" disclaimers in advertising, a loophole that's enabled decades of preposterous claims such as, "I lost 50 pounds in a week!" and "I made $100,000 in my first month!" Here's how the FTC summarizes the change: "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."