In Nov 2023 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and various news organizations brought up the twin issues of blog writers’ truthfulness, and the lack of financial transparency of some health + food influencers and bloggers. I had always assumed we bloggers were to act like reporters, but with a viewpoint; and were held to higher standards than opinion writers. So what are the standard ethical requirements for bloggers.
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Food Influencers
What are Influencers
Food influencers are people with the ability to influence a large number of potential buyers of a product or service, by promoting or recommending those items or services on social media. The reverse is also true, they may try to influence people away from certain foods or services using similar methods. To influencers, their online presence is their business and means of income. Often they rely on their credentials, media expertise, marketing, or funding to gain additional followers.
These people often have hundreds of thousands to millions of followers. Just review the chart above to see how many people may follower influencers. To provide perspective, in total I am followed (website subscribers, blog email contacts, Facebook + X followers, etc) by:
- 437 people email + subscriber contacts
- Just under 1000 distinct people follow or visit my website each month
Folks, it seems, tend to visit my site when looking up specific topics I have written about. Rather than follow me specifically. But then, my site is self-limiting and not intended to make me a worldwide influencer.
- Would I like to have a million followers? Sure, I guess, but I am truthfully ambivalent about that.
- The reason I blog is I am curious about all aspects of food, love learning new things, and then writing about that. Additionally, important to me is showing my sources, so my readers can see for themselves if they agree or not. Not interested in celebrity.
- Bottom line, I do not consider myself an influencer as it is commonly understood these days, I might be a nano influencer, but just barely and that is not my goal.
- Whatever the category I fall into, I strongly believe that as a blogger representing any aspect of food and healthy lifestyles, I should be held to the same ethical standards as reporters.
Bloggers Vs Influencers
Bloggers and influencers are slightly different. Findyourinfluencer states that blogs appeal to older audiences who aren’t as familiar with the latest social media platforms. Research shows that 67% of blog readers are between 31 and 60 years old, whereas only 10% are under 24 years old.
They also write that influencers are often more discreet when promoting products and services. For example, a blogger might write a product review, but an influencer will promote their lifestyle and show how the product seamlessly fits in.
Why is Transparency an Issue
The Washington Post and a nonprofit news site The Examination, investigated and then reported in 2023 about the food and beverage industry paying dietitians and health professionals, who are also social-media influencers, to make posts promoting artificial sweeteners and other sugary foods.
Specifically, they found that after the UN’s issuance of a notice of concern about the artificial sweetener aspartame, various media posts by certain online persons emerged countering the UN report. These news agencies, along with subsequent FTC investigations, found 2 trade associations, 12 registered dietitians, and other online health influencers were funding and/or producing content advocating the safety of using the artificial sweetener aspartame, and advocating the consumption of sugar-containing products. The concerns raised by these agencies concerned the lack of funding transparency of the influencers who wrote those posts.
- For instance, Forbes reports: A dozen diet and health influencers from Instagram and TikTok received individual letters from the FTC addressing almost three dozen apparently paid posts, including some disputing and downplaying a report from the World Health Organization on the dangers of aspartame and posts about craving sugary foods such as ice cream, that either did not disclose they were made as part of a partnership, or contained inadequate disclosures of a paid partnership with the trade associations.
The point is that they hid their bias, and were not upfront about possible influences. This meant the presented information may have possibly been tainted, skewed, or lacked objectivity.
Who Was Named
The FTC sent letters to those who sponsored, and those who took a sponsor’s money, to air content without disclosing funding. This deceit is contrary to FTC ethics rules for online content.
According to the FTC site, below are the organizations and people named. I have to admit, I do not recognize any of them.
In 2020 another case involved Teami, a marketer of teas and skincare products; and they settled with the FTC for allegedly promoting its products using deceptive health claims and endorsements by well-known social media influencers who did not adequately disclose that they were being paid to promote its products. The influencers were named in this case too.
What do Studies Show
Sodexo in the UK, reports how influencers often direct what young people eat. They note that 95% of 16-24 year olds in the UK have a social media profile. They write that over 75% of Gen Z folks, follow at least one influencer on social media. With exposure to food marketing hundred of times a week, they clam, the most discussed fast food and high sugar products were floating around in their consciousness. So it was no surprise their data showed that young people who were exposed to vloggers promoting sugary and fatty snacks went on to eat 26% more calories than those who didn’t.
Food influencers can have positive impacts, if they are ethical and concerned with people’s and the earth’s health and wellbeing. So here is just a sample of people I believe try hard to be ethical and meet standards of care about food: Gordon Ramsey (93M followers), Marion Gadsby (6M), Ina Garten (5.9M), David Chang (1.6M), Samin Nosrat (400K), Sean Sherman (51K), among other well known Chefs.
What is Ethical Food Blogging
LATimes reported back in 2009 attempts at creating a set of ethics for bloggers to follow. When I looked, there are a number of ethics pages that discussed blogs. So using their ideas, along with my own, here are the standards I follow.
Authenticity
I believe a blog must reflect an authentic response to the topic being written about. It should be objective, yet clearly with a point of view, and be clear about the expertise backing up written claims.
I write weekly, and through it all I believe readers get a sense of who I am and what I want in life. To help me stay objective, I am careful to provide links to my sources, so if interested, my readers can see for themselves what I used to come to my conclusions.
To be truthfully upfront, I am clear about my experiences. I constantly tell readers I am just a cook, albeit with a world view and experience of farming and cooking. I say many times, if readers have a diet restriction, maybe consider what I have written, but always seek professional help of nutritionists, dietitians, or other medical professionals. I do not claim to know better than others, I am just a knowledgeable person who does the research to find out what may be true.
Tell the Truth and Protect
To have people believe in your integrity, truth must be a guiding force in blogging, which can also protect the innocent and ignorant from harm.
To achieve truth in what I write, I listen to those people who do not agree with me, but are “reasonably” articulate about why. This means I do not spend much time with adamant evangelists about topics they have a belief and opinion about, but no experience, research, or data. For instance, while I drink mainly plant milk now, and believe data shows the industrial raising of milk cows are harmful, I follow 2 reasonable, although highly opinionated dairy farmers. Their views must be reflected too in my blogs, especially when I believe they have good ideas, and they often do.
But also this means I try to understand the scientific studies I refer to, and do not just skim to the abstract or conclusion. Sometimes media will claim a study “proves” something, when in fact it does not. So to be truthful also means absorbing the data and stories, but keeping a healthy sense of skepticism.
Because I try to be truthful in my blogging, I rarely do news reporting, as I find the full story often gets revealed weeks or months later as more details come out. Including this post, I have only written a handful of news reporting type posts over the past years. Some examples are below.
- This Nonsense about Gas Stoves Ban
- Meat Processing Plants + Illegal Child Labor
- PFAS Catastrophe + Yet Hope is Here
Financial Transparency
There are few governmental laws or policies bloggers need to follow, as it is lawful to communicate your thoughts, beliefs, and opinions in the USA. However, the FTC informs bloggers and influencers that if there is a material connection between an endorser and an advertiser, that connection should be clearly and conspicuously disclosed unless it’s already clear from the context of the communication (1). This means it needs to be clear, unambiguous, and prominent.
The issue of transparency is directly related to trust. If I trust a source, I expect that any influence to their opinions is disclosed. This is why scientific articles, published in reputable journals, disclose funding or other conflicts of interests of the authors. The people I wrote about above either did not disclose or hid their funding source, so one might assume the funding source expected a particular viewpoint.
Like many small bloggers, I would like financial help as my blog as a hobby is getting more expensive. However, I disclose all gifts, comps, samples, and financial relationships with specific businesses, if I write about them on my blog. I note this on the bottom of the post, and in the “about” page.
Copying Recipes
- Australian Instagram food and fitness influencer Ashy Bines was accused by rival blogger Allie Dodd of stealing recipes for her eBook (2).
Recipes themselves are not copyright-able, only the title (3). When I try someone’s recipe I cannot help but modify it to meet my taste. But I decide to write about it under my own name, I will have changed the title, ingredients, amounts, and directions. If I do not, or if my changes are minor, I will name the cook and link to where I found their recipe and just note what I changed.
Many times I come up with what I think is a new idea, only later to find others who have written about it before me. In those cases, I will note I came up with the recipe on my own, but link to the others who came up with it first.
Reusing Posted Photos/Illustrations
Many of the photos I see in other blogs are unattributed, or copies I have seen on other sites. It is not right to use other’s work without at least attributing the photographer or source, this includes the use of stock photos.
What I do is use free sources for photographs and illustrations, examples are Pixal and Imagur. I try to indicate the photographer (but have not been consistent) or image creator even when these free sites indicate it is not necessary. When in a hurry, I may have skipped this part when I first started out, but am trying to backtrack and plug those holes.
Some websites are bad at responding to queries requesting permission to reuse their graphics, so I may use an image where I tag, “permission requested”. If they ever reply with “no”, I will remove. Mostly I am given permission, and indicate that, with a link to their site.
How Blogs Monetize
I started PattyCooks in 2018 as a potential upcoming retirement hobby, then it grew into a daily activity during the pandemic shut down. Now its costs are more than when I started, plus I need some expertise to fix problems here and there. So how can I find external funds, stay independent, and not have to ask readers for help?
One way is to be an affiliate with a business whose products or services I have been using for a long time, and whose product I can stand firmly behind. This means a special link on some of my page(s) have a code so when you connect up with their website, a tiny percent is set aside for PattyCooks on anything you buy during that visit. This is the avenue I have taken, but just baby steps, as I am more interested in my blog writing, than money at this time.
Another way is to sell products or services directly from the website. But that takes a hearty and protected site I am not interested in doing. This type of website also has an overhead I cannot afford.
The third way is sponsorship, where another business is paying your production costs for mentioning they are sponsoring your site.
Some, me included, use banner ads. These are clearly labeled ads that show up in the bottom of pages, or like many news sites, all over the page. I have never made any money from this activity, it was something easy to set up with Google when I started. Since I am not making money from these ads I should figure out how to remove this waste of screen space.
The thing that does happen to me, about once a year, is that I receive free products to try, and I am asked to write about it. This has happened with 7 things: a skillet splash screen, a battery powered milk frother, some pasta, seasoning, coffee, tea, and bread. No money exchanged hands, and I am not told what to write.
Closing
Over time I have learned that trying to influence people via my blog may be hopeless. To quote Anne Lamott (WaPo): The portals of age also lead to the profound (indeed earthshaking) understanding that people are going to do what people are going to do: They do not want my always-good ideas on how to have easier lives and possibly become slightly less annoying. But I cannot help myself from trying.
—Patty
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