If a creator got the product free, got paid, got a commission, or has any other relationship with the brand that their audience would not guess, that connection has to be disclosed in the post itself — clearly enough that an ordinary viewer notices it without looking for it. A free box counts. An affiliate link counts. Being a long-standing brand ambassador counts. This applies to the creator and to the brand: the FTC has been explicit that advertisers are responsible for what their endorsers say, which makes it a campaign-design question rather than something to delegate entirely.
This page is a practical summary of the FTC’s own guidance for influencers and its endorsement guides FAQ, written for people running gifting at scale. It is not legal advice, and a programme of any size should have counsel look at its templates.
Under the FTC’s endorsement guides, a creator who receives a free product must disclose that material connection clearly and conspicuously in the post itself — and Cheerful runs gifting campaigns where the brief, not the individual message, is where that requirement gets enforced.
How to do it
- 1
Put the disclosure requirement in the brief, not in the follow-up
The brief is the one place a requirement reaches every creator in the campaign. Say what has to appear, where it has to appear, and that it is not optional. A requirement mentioned only in a reply to whoever asked about it is a requirement most of the campaign never sees.
- 2
Name the exact wording you will accept
The FTC’s guidance is that terms like "advertisement", "ad" and "sponsored" work, and that vague thanks, ambiguous abbreviations and standalone words like "collab" or "ambassador" do not reliably tell a viewer what the relationship is. Pick the wording, put it in the brief, and do not leave creators to invent it.
- 3
Say where it goes, per format
Above the "more" cut in a caption, not buried in a block of hashtags. On screen in video, not only in the description. Long enough to read in a Story. The requirement is that a viewer actually notices it, so the placement is part of the requirement rather than a detail.
- 4
Do not rely on the platform’s built-in tool alone
A paid-partnership label is useful and the FTC has said such tools may not be enough on their own. Treat the platform label as an addition to a disclosure in the creator’s own words, not a replacement for it.
- 5
Check the posts you already detect
You are detecting the posts anyway in order to report on the campaign. Checking each one for a disclosure at the same time costs nothing extra and is the only way to find the ones that are missing it while the post is still recent.
- 6
Never ask for a positive review, and never suppress a negative one
Endorsements have to reflect the endorser’s honest opinion and actual experience. Conditioning a gift, a payment or a future deal on the sentiment of the post is the thing to avoid, and it is also the fastest way to make a campaign’s results meaningless.
What counts as a material connection
A material connection is any relationship between the creator and the brand that could affect how much weight a viewer gives the endorsement, and that the viewer would not otherwise expect. The list is broader than most people assume.
- A free or discounted product, whether or not a post was required in exchange.
- Money, in any form — a flat fee, a bonus, a per-post rate.
- A commission or affiliate link, including a personalised discount code the creator earns on.
- An ongoing arrangement: ambassador programmes, retainers, gifted product on a regular basis.
- Employment, or a family or close personal relationship with anyone at the brand.
- Entry into a contest or sweepstakes in exchange for posting.
The one that trips up gifting programmes specifically: sending product with no strings attached does not remove the obligation. If the creator posts, the fact they were sent the product free is a material connection, and "I bought this myself" would be worse than saying nothing.
What "clear and conspicuous" means in practice
The standard is that an ordinary viewer notices it, understands it, and does not have to hunt for it. The FTC’s guidance turns that into placement rules that differ by format.
| Format | Where the disclosure belongs | What fails |
|---|---|---|
| Feed caption | In the first part of the caption, before the "more" cut, in the same language as the post. | Below the fold, or inside a run of hashtags where it reads as one more tag. |
| Short video and Reels | On screen, and long enough to be read; spoken as well where the point is made in audio. | Description only. Most viewers never open it. |
| Stories | Superimposed on the frame, held long enough to notice. | A small sticker on a frame that lasts a second, or a swipe-up with no label. |
| Live video | Repeated during the stream, because viewers join partway through. | Said once at the start. |
| Any format | The creator’s own words, in the same language as the endorsement. | A platform label on its own, or a disclosure in a language the audience does not read. |
Where the brand’s own exposure sits
Three things are worth knowing if you are the advertiser rather than the creator.
- 1Advertisers can be held responsible for their endorsers’ claims and missing disclosures. The FTC expects brands to tell creators what is required, and to monitor what they post — which is why this belongs in the brief and in your post reporting rather than in a creator’s inbox.
- 2The FTC has put companies on notice about endorsement practices through its penalty offense programme, which is the mechanism that can expose a company to civil penalties for conduct it has been warned about. Amounts are adjusted annually, so treat any figure you read as needing a check.
- 3Separately from the endorsement guides, the FTC has a final rule on fake and manipulated reviews covering bought positive reviews, undisclosed insider reviews and review suppression. A gifting programme that leans on incentivised reviews should read that rule specifically rather than assume the influencer guidance covers it.
How this interacts with running gifting at scale
The compliance problem in a hundred-creator gifting campaign is not knowing the rule. It is that the rule has to reach a hundred people through a hundred separate conversations, and then be checked against a hundred posts that arrive over three weeks.
Two things make that tractable, and neither is exotic. Put the requirement in the campaign brief so every drafted message carries it rather than depending on whoever wrote that particular email. Then check disclosures during the post detection you are already doing for reporting, so a missing one surfaces while the post is recent enough to fix.
One thing not to do: write the disclosure into the creator’s caption for them as a condition of payment without being clear that it is a requirement rather than a suggestion. Scripted enthusiasm that does not reflect the creator’s actual opinion is a separate problem from a missing hashtag, and it is the more serious one.
Outside the United States
The FTC’s rules apply to advertising directed at US consumers, and other markets have their own regimes with different specifics — different accepted wording, different placement expectations, in some cases a different regulator for each medium. A campaign running in several countries needs the local requirement for each, not the US one applied everywhere. That is outside what this page covers, and it is a real gap to close before running outreach into a market you have not checked.
What this does not do
- This page is a practical summary, not legal advice. Have counsel review your brief templates and your disclosure wording before a programme scales.
- It covers US requirements. Other markets have their own rules and this page does not describe them.
- Cheerful can carry the requirement in the brief and surface the posts it detects; it does not certify that a given post is compliant, and no tool can.
- Post detection finds public posts. A disclosure check can only run on posts that were found — expired Stories and untagged posts are outside it.
- Civil penalty amounts are adjusted annually and are deliberately not quoted here. Check the current figure rather than relying on a number in an article.
Frequently asked questions
- Do influencers have to disclose gifted products?
- Yes. Receiving a product free is a material connection under the FTC’s endorsement guides, and it has to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously in the post itself. This holds even when no post was required in exchange for the product — if the creator chooses to post, the audience needs to know how they got it.
- Is Instagram’s paid partnership label enough on its own?
- Treat it as an addition rather than a substitute. The FTC has said platform disclosure tools may not be sufficient by themselves, so the durable approach is a disclosure in the creator’s own words in the caption or on screen, with the platform label on top of it.
- Does #ad count as a clear disclosure?
- Terms like "ad", "advertisement" and "sponsored" are what the FTC’s guidance points to. What does not reliably work is an ambiguous abbreviation, a vague thank-you, or a standalone word like "collab" or "ambassador" — and even acceptable wording fails if it is buried below the caption fold or inside a block of hashtags.
- Is the brand liable if a creator does not disclose?
- Advertisers can be held responsible for their endorsers’ claims and omissions, and the FTC expects brands to inform creators of the requirement and monitor what gets posted. Practically, that means the requirement belongs in the campaign brief and the check belongs in your post reporting, rather than being left to each creator.
- Where in a video does the disclosure need to go?
- In the video itself — on screen, held long enough to read, and spoken as well when the endorsement is made in audio. A disclosure only in the description fails, because most viewers never open it. In a live stream it needs repeating, since viewers join partway through.
- Can we ask creators to only post if they liked the product?
- No. Endorsements have to reflect the endorser’s honest opinion and actual experience, and conditioning payment, future work or further product on a positive post is the practice to avoid. There is also a separate FTC rule covering incentivised reviews and review suppression that a gifting programme should read on its own terms.
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