Internet Law Commons^™

Mad Men Posing As Ordinary Consumers: The Essential Role Of Self-Regulation And Industry Ethics On Decreasing Deceptive Online Consumer Ratings And Reviews, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 462 (2013), Lucille M. Ponte

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Technology provides consumers with new ways to avoid advertisements, such as fast forwarding through TV commercials and using filtering software to block pop-up ads. Accordingly brand sponsors and their advertising marketing firms have sought alternative methods to pierce through consumer resistance to ads. Social media offers an optimal platform to reach millions of consumers on a nearly daily basis who interact and often rely heavily on the reviews and rankings of fellow consumers. However, many of today’s branding campaigns now mask sponsored ads as ordinary consumer reviews or “Like” and “Don’t Like” responses to a service or product. Unbeknownst to …