Advertisment
Four posts appeared on the influencers Instagram story that featured a variety of the advertisers’ products.
All posts depicted and or described a product and three included a link to buy them via the advertisers’ website. Three of the posts also described reduced price sales promotions being held by the advertisers at the time.
The advertisers’ Instagram handle was tagged in each post with the text “ad” included in different locations of each story.
Complaint
A complaint was received on the basis that the content was not labelled correctly as advertising material and that it was not obvious at first sight that the posts were advertising. The complainant considered the text “ad” was too small and not given enough prominence.
Response
The advertisers stated that having looked into the matter they noted that the content clearly stated “ad” and therefore adhered to brand guidelines.
The influencer stated that she could clearly see “ad” in the posts.
Conclusion
Complaint Upheld:
The Independent Complaints Council considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.
The Council noted the Code requirements that marketing communications should be clear that they are marketing communications (3.31) and should not misrepresent their true purpose such as being presented as user-generated content (3.32). They also noted the joint guidance published by the Advertising Standards Authority and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) on disclosing advertising content, which provided that advertising content should have one of three primary labels as a disclosure; #AD, a platform provided tool or #Gifted and that this disclosure should be the first word in any text block.
In this case, the Council noted that the disclosure used did not have the # as required, nor was it the first word in any text block. The Council noted that the advertising content in this case had not been identified correctly as advertising material. They concluded, therefore, that the lack of correct disclosure resulted in the advertising being likely to mislead consumers about the nature of the content and considered it to be in breach of sections 3.31, 3.32, 4.01 and 4.04 of the Code.
Action Required :
The advertisement must not reappear in its current form. The Council reminded all parties of the requirements of the Guidelines in disclosing commercial content.
