{"id":119020,"date":"2026-02-05T07:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/?post_type=article&p=119020"},"modified":"2026-02-04T13:07:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:07:32","slug":"letter-to-ftc-investigate-casey-means-potential-violations-of-influencer-marketing-standards","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/article\/letter-to-ftc-investigate-casey-means-potential-violations-of-influencer-marketing-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to FTC: Investigate Casey Means’ Potential Violations of Influencer Marketing Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 4, 2026<\/p>\n

Chris Mufarrige
\nDirector, Bureau of Consumer Protection
\nFederal Trade Commission
\n600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
\nWashington, DC 20580<\/p>\n

Dear Chris Mufarrige:<\/p>\n

I am writing to urge the Bureau of Consumer Protection to investigate whether Dr. Casey Means has violated Federal Trade Commission (FTC) policy on undisclosed endorsements and product advertisements (\u201cinfluencer marketing\u201d) and take appropriate action.<\/p>\n

As you know, a longstanding, core principle of fair advertising law in the United States is that people have a right to know when they are being advertised to. With that knowledge, consumers can hopefully apply the appropriate emotional and intellectual filters to advertisements, discounting puffery and claims of authenticity. By contrast, disguised advertisements are inherently deceptive, because consumers do not know to apply appropriate screens. The issue is acute with disguised ads featuring paid endorsements, where deceived consumers believe admired celebrities are making genuine, self-directed and enthusiastic endorsements of brands, not realizing that those celebrities are instead paid and may not even use the touted brand.<\/p>\n

Public Citizen has long been concerned about the issue of undisclosed product advertisements, particularly in the era of social media and influencer marketing, where everyone from neighbors to celebrities may be paid to promote products and services in their social media feeds. In 2016, with colleague organizations, we\u00a0highlighted<\/a>\u00a0dozens<\/a>\u00a0of cases of undisclosed influencer marketing, leading to more than\u00a090 notices<\/a>\u00a0from the FTC to\u00a0influencers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The FTC has elucidated clear standards for endorsement disclosure in its\u00a0endorsement guidelines<\/a>. The guidelines are clear that endorsement disclosures must be made in every promotion, not just generically. Specifically, if a person is using their social media account to promote a product or service in exchange for compensation, they must note the paid relationship in social media post, not just in their biography. From\u00a0example 9(i)<\/a>\u00a0of the endorsement guidelines:<\/p>\n

An influencer who is paid to endorse a vitamin product in their social media posts discloses their connection to the product\u2019s manufacturer only on the profile pages of their social media accounts. The disclosure is not clear and conspicuous because people seeing their paid posts could easily miss the disclosure.<\/p>\n

The logic of this rule is clear: Because most people will miss the disclosure in the profile page, that disclosure does not adequately inform consumers and enable them to contextualize the advertisement they are seeing as an advertisement.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s \u201cDisclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a plain language presentation of the guidelines \u2014 makes the rules and rationales very clear:<\/p>\n