Advertisment
Instagram posts on the influencer’s account featured her wearing the advertisers’ clothing and also featured some of their products.
Post 1:
Image of the influencer sitting on a bench in a gym wearing the advertisers’ clothing and featuring various products from the advertisers’ nutrition range. Text accompanying the image stated:
“@womensbest are turning 4 next week. To celebrate they are having a MASSIVE sale starting on August 12th. I will go through my favourite products on my story over the weekend. Check out the link in their bio for more information.”
Post 2:
Image of the influencer sitting on the floor of a gym wearing the advertisers’ clothing. Text accompanying the image stated:
“The @womensbest birthday sale is now live. There is up to 60% off on products and on their active wear. Love this light pink seamless set. Link is in my bio.”
Post 3:
Image of the influencer putting the advertisers’ products into the boot of her car. Text accompanying the image stated:
“The @womensbest birthday sale is ending soon! Now is your last chance to get up to 60% off. I’ve been living in the @womensbestwear black seamless set recently. They have so many nice colours so make sure to check them out. Link is in my bio to shop now.”
Complaint
The complainant objected to the advertising as they had not been declared as commercial content.
Response
The advertisers stated that they always require their influencers to tag Women’s Best as paid partnership and that they would refer to the influencer to take care going forward.
The influencer replied that they make sure to always state if something is an ad or a paid post and that all posts on their page which were paid partnerships stated AD. They also said that they had in their bio on Instagram that they work with Women’s Best as a paid athlete. Finally, they said that the posts in relation to this matter had all been removed or edited.
Conclusion
Complaint Upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ and influencer’s responses.
They noted the advertisers’ and influencer’s commitment to transparency and that the advertising had been amended or deleted.
Whilst noting the influencer’s comments that they indicated in their bio that they were a paid athlete, the Committee also noted the Code requirement that a marketing communication should be designed and presented in such a way that it is clear that it is a marketing communication. They considered that each and every advertisement or marketing communication should be clearly identified as such.
As the advertising posts in question were not clearly marked or hash tagged correctly to indicate the existence of a commercial relationship with the brand and that the posts were marketing communications, the Committee considered that the posts were in breach of Code sections 3.31 and 3.32.
ACTION REQUIRED:
As the advertising had been amended or withdrawn, no further action was required in this case.
The Committee reminded both the advertiser and the influencer of their responsibility to ensure that commercial marketing was correctly identified so that consumers were aware when social media content was advertising.
