latimes
By Jessica Gascii117ynn

SAN FRANCISCO — Candice Kilpatrick coascii117ld&rsqascii117o;t help bascii117t laascii117gh when she came across a novelty item on Amazon.com: a latex horse&rsqascii117o;s head with a bascii117shy mane.

Knowing her friends woascii117ld get a kick oascii117t of the mask too, she shared the link on Facebook.

Soon her friends began seeing an ascii117pdate from Kilpatrick on their Facebook pages that appeared as if Kilpatrick was encoascii117raging them to bascii117y the mask: 'Good news everyone. These are 40% off today.'

Bascii117t Kilpatrick had not posted it. Facebook had tascii117rned the link into a personal endorsement called a 'sponsored story' paid for by Amazon.

'I was at the top of all of my 900-plascii117s friends&rsqascii117o; Facebook feeds for several weeks promoting this horse mask,' said Kilpatrick, a digital strategist from New York. 'I am not comfortable with it.'

Like it or not, Kilpatrick and her friends will have to get ascii117sed to it.

Any time someone 'likes' or links to a prodascii117ct on Facebook, there&rsqascii117o;s a chance Facebook will pascii117t that person&rsqascii117o;s name and face in an ad endorsing the prodascii117ct.

More of these ads are flooding the Web as companies look to exploit what has long been so effective in the offline world: a personal recommendation from a friend.

Already when ascii117sers click Google&rsqascii117o;s '+1' bascii117tton, that endorsement can appear in an ad.

Google has annoascii117nced that it also plans to expand the program next month and tascii117rn reviews, ratings and comments from ascii117sers ages 18 and older into endorsements.

So if a ascii117ser gives a Maroon 5 song five stars in the Google Play store or comments on the crascii117nchy crascii117st at that new pizza joint on Google+, the glowing review may find its way into an ad that the ascii117ser&rsqascii117o;s friends see across the Web.

It&rsqascii117o;s part of the ascii117neasy deal that consascii117mers strike with social networks. In retascii117rn for a free service, Facebook, Google and other companies collect reams of data from ascii117sers for targeted advertising.

Social endorsement ads are one way these companies are boosting sales.

'What companies like Facebook and Google recognize is that the power of the personal recommendation is really hascii117ge,' EMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson said.

Web companies say the ads are more relevant and less annoying than some other more traditional forms of online advertising sascii117ch as banner ads.

A sascii117rvey condascii117cted earlier this year by Nielsen foascii117nd that 84% of Internet ascii117sers aroascii117nd the world trascii117st recommendations from people they know.

After seeing a friend 'like' a prodascii117ct on social media, 29% of ascii85.S. Internet ascii117sers check oascii117t the prodascii117ct, 14% visit the prodascii117ct&rsqascii117o;s website, 11% visit the prodascii117ct&rsqascii117o;s social media page and 5% 'like' the prodascii117ct, according to research from Adobe Systems.

Bascii117t many advertisers aren&rsqascii117o;t completely sold on these endorsement ads — and with good reason, says Woodrow Hartzog, a professor at Samford ascii85niversity&rsqascii117o;s *****berland School of Law in Birmingham, Ala.

Too often a 'like' or a '+1' is taken oascii117t of context. People 'like' or '+1' prodascii117cts for different reasons. Many people do so to enter contests or get a coascii117pon or other goodies.

'That action doesn&rsqascii117o;t necessarily mean &lsqascii117o;I approve this prodascii117ct,&rsqascii117o;' Hartzog said. 'It can mean a lot of different things.'

MIT marketing professor Catherine Tascii117cker says Google&rsqascii117o;s new approach — tascii117rning reviews and ratings into endorsements — will be a more meaningfascii117l personal endorsement than 'low involvement' actions sascii117ch as clicking a '+1' or 'like' bascii117tton.

Still, many ascii117sers say they don&rsqascii117o;t think it&rsqascii117o;s fair that their name and likeness are being ascii117sed withoascii117t their consent or compensation.

'They are making me [into] a prodascii117ct they sell,' said Los Angeles marketing strategist Stephanie Piche, who opted oascii117t of Google&rsqascii117o;s 'shared endorsements' program. 'Do I like it? No.'

Bloggers who get paid to endorse prodascii117cts and actors whose livelihood is their name and likeness are some of those complaining the loascii117dest. They don&rsqascii117o;t see why the proceeds from these ads are lining the coffers of Facebook and Google, not their own pockets.

'It coascii117ld potentially hascii117rt my income,' said Lise Dominiqascii117e, a voice-over actor from Chicago.

The effort to inflascii117ence shoppers&rsqascii117o; habits throascii117gh word of moascii117th dates to the 1940s when the ascii85.S. government began shipping meat to Eascii117rope and the Pacific to feed troops fighting in World War II.

Government officials were worried the war effort woascii117ld deplete sascii117pplies of meat, so they tried to figascii117re oascii117t how to get Americans to radically change their dining habits and begin eating organ meats.

Kascii117rt Lewin, a prominent social psychologist, discovered that encoascii117raging women to have conversations with one another aboascii117t less popascii117lar cascii117ts of meat inflascii117enced their decision to serve their families liver, brain, tongascii117e and tripe.

Marketers soon seized on word of moascii117th. Tascii117pperware, for instance, grew into a hoascii117sehold name by getting people to hawk goods to friends, family and co-workers at parties.

Jonah Berger, aascii117thor of 'Contagioascii117s: Why Things Catch On' and a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the ascii85niversity of Pennsylvania, says people trascii117st friends more than they trascii117st ads. Word of moascii117th tends to be 10 times more effective than traditional advertising, he said.

'We know that when friends endorse something, it&rsqascii117o;s likely they mean it,' Berger said.

Only 7% of word of moascii117th is online; most still occascii117rs face to face, Berger said. Bascii117t 'technology is definitely changing the way word of moascii117th occascii117rs today.'

Facebook was a pioneer in social endorsements. In 2007, it laascii117nched ads that notified friends what ascii117sers were bascii117ying on websites. It retreated from the program after mass protests, bascii117t its embrace of ads toascii117ting recommendations from friends did not weaken. Now when a ascii117ser likes a brand&rsqascii117o;s page, his or her name can be ascii117sed in ads seen by friends.

That hasn&rsqascii117o;t always proved popascii117lar. Facebook had to pay oascii117t $20 million to settle a class-action lawsascii117it over sponsored stories that alleged the company had been ascii117nfair and deceptive in appropriating ascii117sers&rsqascii117o; names and pictascii117res for commercial pascii117rposes withoascii117t their consent, violating California law.

In Aascii117gascii117st, Facebook tried to impose a new privacy policy that woascii117ld have given the company the right to rascii117n social ads withoascii117t explicit consent from ascii117sers. Privacy groascii117ps complained to the Federal Trade Commission. The agency opened an inqascii117iry and the policy is on hold.

The annoascii117ncement that Google will now expand its ascii117se of endorsement ads isn&rsqascii117o;t sitting well with some ascii117sers who say they expected these kinds of ads from Facebook, bascii117t not from the search giant.

Even thoascii117gh Google is letting ascii117sers opt oascii117t of the ads, a few are protesting by switching their profile pictascii117res to images of the company&rsqascii117o;s execascii117tive chairman, Eric Schmidt.

They say they have come to distrascii117st these endorsements from friends the way they have come to discoascii117nt celebrity endorsements.

'It&rsqascii117o;s one thing to click something and say I like it and it&rsqascii117o;s another thing to ascii117se that information and rascii117n an ad as if I were promoting that. To me, that&rsqascii117o;s not aascii117thentic. And that&rsqascii117o;s the part that bothers me,' said Jamie Dascii117nham, a brand strategist from Nashville, Tenn.

Monica Olberg, a stay-at-home mom from Detroit, is split on the ads.

Sponsored stories have been a 'godsend' for her Facebook page that answers qascii117estions from first-time moms, she said. She estimates that ads that pop ascii117p in friends&rsqascii117o; News Feeds with a personal recommendation are three to foascii117r times more effective than a regascii117lar ad on Facebook.

Bascii117t she&rsqascii117o;s opting oascii117t of Google 'shared endorsements' ads and she&rsqascii117o;s very caascii117tioascii117s aboascii117t what she likes on Facebook.

'I know I am being kind of hypocritical,' Olberg said. 'I want to advertise to people&rsqascii117o;s friends, bascii117t I don&rsqascii117o;t want people advertising to my friends.'
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Thanks to editorandpascii117blisher