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On a recent Saturday, I was perusing my Facebook feed and came across a post from a client that contained an ad for a specific down payment amount without including any of the trigger terms required by Reg Z. I took a picture of the offending post and sent it to the dealership owner.
The good news is that I got a quick response, made a few suggestions about how to convey the same point without creating liability, and everyone moved on with their day.
This Happens A lot
If this were a rare occurrence, I wouldn't even bother making it the subject of our weekly tip. The problem, though, is that this happens often. Even more concerning, it happens with dealers that have advertising policies, a website review process, and trained personnel. No matter how many times I emphasize that social media posts count as advertising, the message seems to fall on deaf ears.
To make matters worse, many employees post advertising content to their personal social media feeds and ignore the relevant advertising rules. It seems like the problem has increased since the FTC issued its guidance on advertising the "total price". I've got some bad news for dealerships:
IF, it is your vehicle being advertised,
Your name being used or that appears in the background
If your pictures of the vehicle are the ones being used in the post
It's your employee doing the posting...
THEN you've got a heck of an uphill battle to convince any lawyer, judge, jury or regulator that the ad isn't yours.
What's the Solution?
At Ignite, we've worked with dealers of all sizes and business models to develop the right strategy for their business. We'd like the opportunity to protect your business. This isn't a problem that AI can fix, it doesn't have the breadth of understanding to provide the necessary protection on this subject matter.
KEEP CALM & CALL IGNITE
info@ignitecp.com
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