In a recent letter to shoe retailer Cole Haan
regarding its Wandering Sole Pinterest contest, the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) signaled a major change for promotional contests
conducted through social media platforms. In the letter, the
FTC determined that the Pinterest contest sponsored by the company
was a form of product endorsement, subject to Section 5 of the FTC
Act, which requires the disclosure of a material connection between
a marketer and an endorser when their relationship is not otherwise
apparent from the context of the communication that contains the
endorsement.
In the Wandering Sole Pinterest contest at issue, participants
were asked to post five pictures of their favorite Cole Haan shoes
and five pictures of their favorite places to wander, tagging each
picture with #WanderingSole. Cole Haan promised to award $1,000 to
the participant with the most creative pictures.
