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Sponsored-content disclosure

If a Plastr sponsorship includes a post, video, Story, livestream, newsletter mention or any endorsement, the audience must be able to tell it is sponsored. This page is the short version of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's endorsement guidance as it applies to what people sell here.

The rule

When you are paid, given something, or otherwise have a material connection to a brand you talk about, you must clearly disclose that connection. The disclosure has to be clear and easy to understand, hard to miss, placed with the endorsement itself (not only in a bio, a linked page, or behind "more"), and appropriate for the medium: readable in a photo, audible and visible in a video, on the Story frame itself. Words like "Ad", "Sponsored", "Paid partnership with [brand]" and "#ad" work when they are prominent; vague terms ("collab", "spon", "thanks [brand]") and hashtags buried in a wall of tags do not.

A platform's built-in "paid partnership" label can help but is not guaranteed to be enough on its own, especially where the label is small, off-screen, or missing from reposts. You are responsible for the disclosure being adequate; the sponsor is responsible for the truthfulness of any claims they ask you to make.

By medium

  • Feed post or photo. Put the disclosure in the first line of the caption, before any "more" cut, and consider it on the image too.
  • Instagram / TikTok Story. Overlay the disclosure on the Story frame itself, large enough to read on a phone, for the whole frame. A caption below the Story is not enough.
  • Video (YouTube, TikTok, Reels). Say it out loud near the start and show it on screen; a description-box line alone is not enough for people who never open the description.
  • Livestream. Say it and show it at the start, and repeat it periodically, because viewers join late.
  • Podcast or ad read. Say it in the audio, at the read itself.
  • Newsletter or blog. Label the sponsored section where it starts, not only in a footer.
  • Physical placement (vehicle, wall, jersey, booth). A visible logo on a real object is generally understood as advertising and needs no separate disclosure. If you also post about it as if you chose the brand, disclose.

Claims

Only say what you actually believe and have experienced. Do not repeat a claim from the sponsor's brief that you cannot back up, do not invent an experience you did not have, and do not make health, financial or "results" claims unless the sponsor has substantiation for them. These are in the Rules, and breaking them is a creator-at-fault outcome under the refund policy.

Source

The FTC's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 CFR Part 255, revised 2023) and its "Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers" are the authorities. This page is a summary, not legal advice; the guides themselves and the platform you post on are the final word.