MySpace Says No To Misleading Ads
In a recent update to its advertising guidelines, social media giant MySpace changes the terms of what it deems acceptable as advertisement on its site, and products that make unsubstantiated health claims are specifically singled out. It appears My Space has had enough of those fad products and cheesy Photoshopped before and after pictures. For users of MySpace, who have been bombarded with such ads for a long time, this may come as a relief.
In the updated guidelines, it states that an advertiser within his or her ads must not "make any claim about a product or service (such as diet suppressant, wrinkle remover, or "guaranteed" results) unless it has been substantiated through research or surveys, and that support is publicly available via [their] MySpace profile or third party link from the ad". In this context, we take "support" in this case to mean to prove the efficacy of the product being promoted or link to a reputable site that does this.
It also states that ads must not "contain or imply inaccurate affiliation or endorsement" or "include CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS of any kind". So that should mean we've seen the end of "the Rachael Ray Diet" as well as others. It also specifies that the advertiser must not "use another person's or entity's trademark, service mark, slogan, logo, brand name, company name or other identifier unless such party grants prior permission or otherwise permitted by law" so that would rule out the "as seen on CBS or NBC". The intent of these guidelines, as it looks from our end, seems to be to protect legitimate institutions and individuals from being represented as promoting these products without their consent.
Undoubtedly responding to many customer complaints about having been ripped off because they missed something buried in the small print (or the no print in some cases) it states "Any advertiser page containing a transactional interface for the purpose of selling a good or service to the user must contain the full terms and conditions of the offer in an easily accessible manner."
We respect that MySpace has made this commitment to protecting its members by cleaning up advertisements and having quality standards that make advertisers accountable for representing bogus products. MySpace may lose a significant amount of revenue by prohibiting these types of Ads because it makes its money from the space it rents out. Those fad and scam products bought a significant amount of ad space, and without other advertisers willing to pay as much for that space... well you get the picture. We wanted to congratulate MySpace on taking the high road and hope that other sites and search engines will follow in their footsteps.