1 of 1- RadioActive
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Ever Wonder About Those Radio Hosts Shilling For Sponsors? Read This.
I'm not sure what the laws are here in Canada, but iHeart Radio in America and Google are both in the bad books with some states and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for having local radio personalities personally and wholeheartedly endorse a new Google phone, even though virtually none of them had ever used it. The penalties for the suspect endorsements total $9 million U.S. between them.
Think about that the next time you hear a local here shilling for a real estate rep or perhaps a local "repair the home" place. Not saying those aren't legit, but these cases certainly make you wonder if they actually used a service - or are just providing lip service.
Google paid millions to radio hosts to endorse the Pixel 4 — even though they hadn’t used it
- Chrisphen
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Re: Ever Wonder About Those Radio Hosts Shilling For Sponsors? Read This.
This probably applies to any talent that mentions brand names on air. As it should.
- RadioActive
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Re: Ever Wonder About Those Radio Hosts Shilling For Sponsors? Read This.
I think the sin is indicating that they've personally used it when they haven't. If they just talked up the product without saying how great their pictures were or how clear they found the sound or whatever, it wouldn't have mattered.
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: Ever Wonder About Those Radio Hosts Shilling For Sponsors? Read This.
Reading the article the ads ran over 23,000 times in ten markets, so possibly over 2,300 times per market. Intense campaign since the ads only ran from late 2019 until early 2020.
Yes the sin is absolutely the fact these personalities never used the phone but were waxing how fantastic the new product was based on their personal experience. Not only does this hurt Google, iHeart but also the announcers that lent their name and voices to the ads.
I don't concern myself with local plugs since there aren't really that many. Oakley has done quite a few over the years and continues to but they are relatively small potatoes. Restaurants, clothing, the Home Improvement People. I don't have a reason to doubt him. He even says what projects he has used with the Home Improvement People.
I remember a few years back John Moore voiced ads for a water treatment company and he said that the company approached him after he installed their product in his home. These ads I believe were on for a couple of years.
The local campaigns tend to be long term so this makes them more credible than what Google did with a short and high volume and very select radio campaign. Oakley, Moore and Agar have all lived in Toronto for a long time, so if they were purposely misleading or lying, their reputation and that of the advertiser and station would be long gone.
Plus there is a big difference between voicing ads for a company and going the next step and endorsing them based on your experiences using the product or service.