FTC disclosure rules for US brand deals and what clear and conspicuous means

What to take away

What the FTC Endorsement Guides actually require of a US creator

The FTC Endorsement Guides are the agency's rules on endorsements and testimonials. They apply when there is a material connection between a creator and a brand, meaning a link a viewer would not expect. Cash is the obvious one. Free product, discounts, affiliate commissions, trips and family ties count too.

The duty runs to the creator, not only the brand. If you post an endorsement and hide the connection, you can be liable even when the brand wrote the brief.

The agency's plain-language answers on disclosure requirements for brand deals cover the questions creators send in most often, including how to disclose a gift and who has to say what (FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking).

Two words carry most of the weight: endorsement and material connection. An endorsement is any advertising message you make that viewers believe reflects your own opinion. A material connection is anything that could affect how much weight they give that opinion. Both can exist without a contract and without a single dollar changing hands.

Who is covered

Any US creator who endorses a product to an audience is covered, from a creator with a few thousand followers to a national account. Employees posting about their own employer are covered. So are creators who mention a brand in a livestream, a podcast or a newsletter.

What the rules do not require

They do not ban sponsored content. They do not demand a specific hashtag. They do not require you to disclose a product you bought at full price and mention with no brand involvement. The requirement is honesty about the connection, in a form people actually see.

Brands pass disclosure language into contracts, and some of it is unenforceable or one-sided. Before signing, compare the clause against what the FTC expects, the way you would with any other brand deal contract clauses.

Your two obligations

Those two duties cover most enforcement. Everything below is detail on how they work in practice.

Clear and conspicuous: the placement, timing and language test

Clear and conspicuous is the legal standard for disclosure. It means the disclosure is hard to miss and easy to understand. Placement, timing and wording all matter. A disclosure that fails any one of the three fails the test.

The FTC's guidance for influencer posts sets out the practical version: put the disclosure where people will see it, not after a wall of hashtags, and use simple language (Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers).

Placement

On a photo feed post, the disclosure belongs in the caption before the fold, where the caption truncates. On a video, it belongs in the video itself, spoken or on screen, plus in the caption. In a story, it belongs on the frame a viewer sees while the product is shown.

Timing

A viewer should know about the connection before or as they take in the endorsement, not after. A spoken line at the end of a ten-minute video is late. A hashtag that appears for half a second is late. On screen text should stay long enough to be legible at normal speed.

Language

Plain words beat codes. "Ad," "sponsored," "paid partnership with" and "I got this free from" all work. "Collab," "sp," "spon" and a bare brand tag do not. The test is whether a reasonable viewer understands the commercial relationship without doing detective work.

The platform's own label

Platform labels help, but they are not a substitute. Use the paid partnership tool and still write the disclosure in the caption or say it in the video. Assume the label may not render for every viewer on every device.

Where disclosure records fit

Save the caption text, the video file and a screenshot of the live post. If a complaint ever arrives, a dated record showing what viewers saw is your best evidence. That habit also protects you at tax time, when the money from these deals has to be reported, as covered in our notes on brand deal income.

Compliant and non-compliant examples for video, feed posts and stories

Examples make the standard concrete. The pairs below show the same deal disclosed well and badly.

Video

A skincare review that opens with "This video is sponsored by [brand]" and keeps a small on-screen label visible passes. The same review that mentions the sponsorship at minute nine fails, even if the caption says "ad."

Feed posts

A caption that begins "Ad: I partnered with [brand] on this" passes. A caption that reads like a normal review and ends with forty hashtags, one of which is #ad, fails. The disclosure has to arrive before the reader forms an opinion.

Stories

Stories disappear, which makes placement harder. Put the disclosure on the frames where the product appears, in text large enough to be legible on a phone screen. A disclosure on a frame before the product, or after it, is easy to miss and fails the standard.

A worked example

A creator gets a free blender, no cash, and posts a recipe video. Compliant version: the creator says "[Brand] sent me this blender for free" in the first fifteen seconds, keeps "#ad" on screen through the demo, and repeats the gift in the caption's first line.

Non-compliant version: the creator tags the brand, says nothing, and lets viewers assume the blender was bought.

Hashtags, tags and platform tools that do not count as disclosure

A hashtag can be a disclosure if it is clear and placed early. Most hashtags creators use are neither. The FTC has said that hashtags like #sp, #spon, #collab and #partner are ambiguous and should not be used alone.

Tags and mentions are worse. A brand tag tells viewers a brand exists, not that money or product changed hands. Tagging a brand in a photo caption, or adding a handle to a story, is not disclosure.

Tools that help but do not finish the job

What to do instead

Write the disclosure in words in the post itself. Keep the platform label too. If the deal involves affiliate links, the commission has to be stated near the link and in the post, which is the same rule that applies to affiliate income disclosures.

Cross-border note

US rules follow the post wherever the audience is, and other countries have their own versions. Creators who work with brands north of the border should also check Canadian influencer disclosure rules so one post does not breach two regimes.

Material connections beyond cash: free product, affiliate links and trips

Cash is not the test. The test is whether the connection could affect how much weight a viewer gives your opinion. That covers a long list of benefits.

Free product

A PR package you keep is a material connection. Disclose it even if the brand asked for nothing in return and you owe no post. If you do post, say the item was free. If you return it, and say so, the connection is weaker, but a mention of the brand still deserves context.

Affiliate links

An affiliate link pays you when someone buys. Viewers do not know that unless you tell them. Put the disclosure next to the link and in the post text. "I earn a commission if you buy through this link" is clear. A bare link with no words is not.

Trips and events

A brand that flies you to a launch and covers the hotel has created a material connection. Disclose it in the posts from the trip, not just in a later recap. The same applies to meals, tickets and gifted experiences.

When the connection is unclear

If you are unsure whether something counts, disclose it. An extra line costs nothing. A missing line can cost a great deal, and it is one of the brand deal income mistakes that shows up repeatedly when deals go wrong.

Health and wellness claims and the substantiation standard

Health claims carry more risk than most sponsored content. The FTC expects advertisers and endorsers to have evidence to back claims before they are made. For supplements, foods, devices and programs, that evidence generally means competent and reliable scientific evidence.

The agency's guidance on health products explains what that standard means for claims about weight loss, immunity, pain, sleep and disease (Health Products Compliance Guidance).

What substantiation means for a creator

You cannot repeat a brand's claim just because the brand supplied a study. If the study is small, unpublished or does not match the claim, the claim is still a problem when you make it. Ask for the evidence, examine it, and decline claims it does not support.

Claims to treat carefully

Testimonials and results

A personal result is a claim. If you say a supplement cleared your skin, you are making a health claim and need evidence. Say what happened to you, avoid promising the same for viewers, and disclose the sponsorship.

When to walk away

If a brand will not share substantiation and wants strong claims, decline the deal. The fee is small next to the exposure, and the FTC has brought cases against individual endorsers, not only companies.

Penalties the FTC has actually issued and notices of penalty offenses

The FTC's main tool against creators has been warning letters, not lawsuits. It has sent letters to influencers whose posts lacked disclosures or promoted products without evidence, telling them to fix their practices and report back.

The agency has also issued notices of penalty offenses to hundreds of advertisers and agencies, putting them on notice that certain conduct can trigger civil penalties if repeated (Notices of Penalty Offenses).

What the notices change

Once a company has notice, a later violation can carry civil penalties. That raises the stakes for brands and for the creators they hire. The notices cover deceptive endorsements, fake reviews and undisclosed material connections.

Warning letters in practice

A warning letter is not a fine. It is a demand to correct conduct. Recipients are usually asked to confirm changes and to remove or fix posts. Ignoring one invites escalation.

Where enforcement shows up

The agency's docket lists cases against advertisers, review platforms and endorsers, including actions over fake reviews and undisclosed sponsorships (Cases and Proceedings). A few complaints show what draws attention: repeated undisclosed ads, health claims without evidence, and reviews that were bought.

State and other regulators

State attorneys general can pursue deceptive advertising under their own laws. The SEC has rules for investment content, and the FCC has sponsorship identification rules for broadcast. A disclosure habit that satisfies the FTC usually helps elsewhere too.

A creator guide to keeping disclosure records for every brand deal

Records turn a dispute into a short conversation. They also support your tax filings, since brand payments are income reported to the IRS on Form 1099-NEC or 1099-K and claimed on Schedule C. Build the habit now.

The checklist for every deal

How to store it

One folder per brand, one subfolder per campaign. Keep the files for at least four years. Cloud storage is fine. Name files with the date and platform so a search finds them fast.

When a post is edited or deleted

Save a screenshot before you change anything. If a brand asks you to remove a disclosure, keep the request in writing and decline. If you delete a post, note why and when.

Reviewing your own feed

Twice a year, scroll your own posts and check the disclosures. Fix anything unclear, and note the fix. Old posts stay visible, and an old post without a disclosure is still a live problem.

Working with brands that resist

Some brands ask for disclosure in a place that hides it. Push back in writing and cite the standard. If the brand insists, the deal is not worth the risk, and the contract clause is worth renegotiating before anything is published.

Common questions