You Might Be a Winner
A blog from the attorneys of Verrill
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When shopping online, we all want to know what lawnmower/backscratcher/egg timer is the best. Once we've found an array of options, many of us go...
On Tuesday (September 20, 2016), the FTC and Nutraclick entered into a consent order concerning Nutraclick's online offer for "free" samples of...
Olympic prize awards are generally taxed like other prizes. Some lawmakers have seen this practice of taxing our Olympians as a "victory tax." On...
Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal dismissed a lawsuit against Yelp! by a disgruntled business that received a one-star rating from a...
When the last online fantasy football game was played, the attorneys general of New York, Nevada and Illinois were throwing penalty flags, state...
Unless you've Rip Van Winkled for the past month, lost your television/iPhone/iPad, or simply given up on international competitive athletics to...
Recently and without fanfare, Pinterest revised its Promotion Guidelines in a few significant ways. The old Guidelines said you cannot "run a...
On July 11, 2016, the FTC announced that it had settled charges against Warner Bros. that it paid online influencers to post positive game play...
In a twist that would make Alanis Morrisette sing, "Isn't It Ironic", last week the New York Times reported that a survivor of an Emirates airline...
According to Wikipedia, the term "copy-and-paste" refers to the popular, simple method of reproducing text from a source to a destination. We all do...
Competitive video gaming is a somewhat recent attraction for (mostly) young adult boys and (mostly) men who think they are young adult boys. I've...
For many young adults, college classes will be starting soon. For many anxious parents, college costs will be accumulating soon. Thank goodness you...
A good brand's reaction to any human tragedy is to try to find a way to help. Most recently, we have seen an outpouring of support for the Orlando...
I came across an article in the Dallas Morning News the other day titled "Campus carry group may offer 'cash prizes' to UT students who call out...
Imagine a football field roped off and sectioned into 500 marked squares. Imagine further a cow roaming free on this football field trying to find...
You can buy almost any product that is "all natural" -- skin cream, soap, shampoo, cleaners, grass seed, bug repellent, pet spray, even hair loss...
Marketing is supposed to be fun. And by golly, the folks at HBO are circling the bases by taking on sport's most esteemed franchise, the New York...
By rough estimate there are over 20,000 people out there who devote their livelihood to extreme "sweepstaking." These dedicated denizens of the...
This week the FTC settled charges against Lord & Taylor from alleged deceptive native advertising during its March 2015 Design Lab social media...
Your company just made a major announcement that it is partnering with a charity that you now find is involved in a scandal. What can you do? The...
Recently, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a putative class action lawsuit claiming that the online game Castle...
We all know Peyton Manning – he's a professional pitcher: for Papa Johns, DirecTV, Buick, and Gatorade, among others. He's also a professional...
What is it with New York these days; it's a boon for promotion lawyers. First, the Attorney General says daily fantasy sports are illegal gambling...
The Guardian reported on February 2 that the owner of a horse who was in a winning contestant's selfie claims that she should share in the contest...
Did you know that you can legally trade futures contracts on whether Trump tanks in Iowa or Sanders soars in New Hampshire? Two not-for-profit...
What's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander. 44 states are selling legal lottery tickets to hopeful citizens with the 1 in 292.2...
Yesterday, the FTC settled a deceptive advertising lawsuit against the creators and marketers of the Lumosity "brain training" program. For those of...
You've heard this sales pitch before. Its cousins are "A percentage of proceeds to charity" and "A portion of the proceeds to charity". Do you really...
On December 22, in my blog on the Miss Universe debacle, I related the story of the mother of baby Yuki Lin who was awarded $25,000 for giving birth...
It's that time of year again, the 20th annual HGTV Dream Home 2016 Sweepstakes began December 29th. As the sponsor of this promotion has recognized,...
About the Blog
Promotion and sweepstakes laws vary widely across the fifty states and under federal regulations, creating complex challenges for today’s innovative marketers. This blog explores the latest updates and trends in promotion and marketing law, offering practical insights to help brands stay compliant while pushing creative boundaries. We’ll also discuss noteworthy, questionable, and groundbreaking promotional campaigns to encourage thoughtful discussion among marketing and legal professionals.
Blog's Editor
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About
“You Might Be A Winner”—everyone knows this phrase. It is a tried-and-true marketing device that calls people to action to purchase a product, visit a website, or share an idea in return for the opportunity to win a prize. Through this blog, our goal is to make you a winner by providing useful information in the promotion marketing world.
Promotional marketing law covers many topics, including sweepstakes, contests, games, giveaways, and coupons. It also includes cause marketing, an area that has proliferated in recent years, which includes commercial co-ventures, flat donations, and sponsorships designed to raise money for charities. Laws often differ among the fifty states (and the federal government) and often can’t keep up with the ever-changing landscape created by innovative marketers. We will try to keep you abreast of promotion marketing law developments and elicit discussion over questionable, interesting, or innovative promotions.
The blog’s editor, Rob Laplaca, has more than thirty years of experience counseling major brands and marketing agencies as they develop fun and legally sound promotions. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences on promotion law topics and “that guy” who can be seen trying to read the fine print on ads and TV commercials.