Advertising Law Tool Kit - Tenth Edition | 2022

64 / Venable Social Media In today’s marketplace, social media are a hot channel for marketing products and services. Many companies fear being left behind if they do not launch campaigns via social media. While there are many advantages to using the medium to market a brand, there are just as many potential regulatory pitfalls. Marketing via social media can trigger issues with, among other things, deceptive advertising and substantiation of product claims, compliance with the FTC’s endorsement and testimonial rules, sweepstakes and contests compliance, CAN-SPAM, intellectual property rights, advertising to children, and compliance with the social media platforms’ own rules. The FTC, state AGs, and many of the social media platforms have published guidance, established rules, and pursued enforcement actions against marketers that failed to comply with the law in advertising via social media. When developing a social media strategy, marketers should ask the questions at the right in order to help mitigate legal, regulatory, and reputational risk. If you answer yes to any of these questions, your social media advertising and promotion policies may deserve a harder look. Melissa Landau Steinman mlsteinman@Venable.com +1 202.344.4972