GOOPtastic: One More Reason To Be Irritated By Gwyneth Paltrow

12/22/2009

GOOPtastic: One More Reason To Be Irritated By Gwyneth Paltrow

I was just going to title this HA HA HA GWYNETH FAIL! but that seemed childish. Still, the news that Her Royal GOOPiness might have run afoul of the FTC's new blogger disclosure guidelines made me titter a little more gleefully than is, I suppose, appropriate for a grown woman.

What did she do to warrant this accusation? Well, unlike your everyday-run-of-the-mill mom-blogger, who might get a trip to Butterball headquarters, Gwyneth got a trip to a spa in Marrakesh, Morocco, and then sang its praises on her website, GOOP. And - here's the kicker - she did not disclose whether or not she paid for the trip herself. Jezebel reckons she didn't. Which, if true, runs totally afoul of the FTC guidelines concerning such disclosure. Hey, if mommybloggers are going to get called out for writing about free laundry detergent, why not Gwyneth and her "ridiculously lavish" Moroccan body rubs?

Jezebel writes that Jeff Bercovici at the Daily Finance got in touch with the FTC to find out what they thought. He says, "I contacted an FTC spokeswoman to ask how it would determine whether Paltrow violated the guidelines — and what, if any, steps it would take in the event that she had." There has not, apparently been any response.

This whole thing also raises a bigger question: how about all that free stuff that celebrities get? Jezebel notes that celebrites are bound by FTC guidelines for any online endorsements they make, but what about the rest of it? Shouldn't they be required to wear big disclosure stickers on their asses, proclaiming that they did not pay for that Versace gown/bottle of water/Birkin bag/ass implant, so that their endorsing it, even if just in the manner of letting themselves be photographed in it/with it, can be taken with a big fat grain of salt?

I don't care that celebrities get free stuff; I mean, sure, if you're making a gajillion dollars annually it might be nice if you'd donate your freebies (like some of us un-gajillioners do) or their equivalent cost to a worthy charity or something, but whatever. I get why companies want celebrities to endorse their stuff, and I get that that means tossing freebies their way. But in Gwyneth's case in particular, it seems a bit skeevy to produce a website that purports to tell women - moms! - how to live a better life and hold your own life up as a model and wave around something like a trip to a spa in Marrakesh as just such a lovely thing that would be such the lovely treat and not make it clear that a) she understands that this is out of the reach of the average GOOP reader, but b) not out of her reach, because she's Gwyneth Paltrow, and very, very rich, and c) oh, hey, even though she could afford it, she didn't have to, because she's GWYNETH PALTROW, BITCHES.

Bah.

Anyway.

So when is someone going to send me to Marrakesh? Or to a spa? A mud pit, even, preferably somewhere warm, where I can smear myself with muck and pretend that it's "ridiculously lavish." I swear I'll disclose it.

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Her Bad Mother at 10:20 AM in Bad Doesn't Mean Stupid, Bad Moms Don't Judge, Bad Moms Sometimes Judge But Feel Bad, Bad Rants, Even We Have Standards, GOOPtastic | Permalink