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Bulletin: 20/1
Batch: 260
Reference: 33977
Product: Fake Tan (Beauty)
Advertiser: Cocoa Brown
Influencer:
Agency:
Medium: Social Media
Codes:
ASAI Code 7th Edition: 2.4(c), 4.1, 4.4, 4.9, 4.10
Two posts made by the advertisers featured photographs of individual Instagram users.
One post featured the caption:
“The stunning [redacted] is dressed to impress wearing our tan *star eyes emojis* Happy Saturday lovelies! #TeamCB”
The second post was captioned:
“How fab is [redacted]? *heart eyes emojis* #TeamCB”.
The complainant considered the posts to be misleading because they created the impression that both individuals featured had used a Cocoa Brown tanning product in order to achieve their tan, despite neither individual stating this in their own original posts. The complainant said that one of the individuals in question had, in fact, stated that she had used a different tanning brand in her original post.
The advertisers said that the individuals in question had initially tagged Cocoa Brown Tan in their original posts and had then removed the tags at a later stage. The ASAI Executive requested that the advertisers remove the relevant posts from their Instagram page. The advertisers confirmed that the posts in question had been removed.
Complaint upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response and explanation. They noted that the relevant posts had been removed at the time of adjudication. The Committee considered that the posts had implied a Cocoa Brown tanning product had been used by the individuals in question, which was not the case.
In the circumstances, the Committee considered the advertisements to be misleading and in breach of Code Sections 4.1, 4.4, 4.9 and 4.10.
ACTION REQUIRED:
The advertisement must not reappear in its current form.