Rules are Unconstitutional?

An article on MediaPostNews comments on the Interactive Advertising Bureau calling the new rules we blogged about here on Wednesday being unconstitutional, concerning the payment disclosure in particular.

The claim is that it's infringing first amendment rights to freedom of the press and freedom of speech. I can't agree with that. There's no interference from the government on what can and cannot be said on those blogs, they just require a little extra information. It should be noted that newspapers and other non-blog media do not require this same disclosure, and so the other part of the argument is that bloggers shouldn't be held to standards more stringent than those of other media. While I can agree that it's not fair, I still don't see a problem with it. The reason the rules are in place is because blogging is a single person making a review. Unless disclosed, the review becomes a testimonial from a member of the company's target market. The difference between a paid-off newspaper review and a blog review is the same as the difference between an infomercial testimonial and your friend telling you a product was great. The latter is far more valuable advertising. These new laws ensure both the newspaper and the blog sound like an infomercial when they should, and a genuine review when they should.

I can see why this could be a problem in some situations, it means that even if a product is amazing and a blogger says so but the reader can tell they've been paid the review has less weight. That's the way it should be though, because it's not an unbiased review anymore after payment. The laws are meant to protect the consumer from manipulative advertisers...and that's a good thing. As a graphic designer and advertiser myself, I know how manipulative the business can be. The fact of the matter is many, many people are easily swayed by advertising. Not many take a critical look at ads. These laws protect those people.

My general feeling is, if you have a quality product and it's getting any exposure anywhere, you're going to get business no matter what. If you have a terrible product and it's getting exposure, you shouldn't get business. Theses laws are a step to make sure the terrible products don't.