With the recent surge in influencer marketing we have been receiving an increased number of questions around what constitutes an ad, whether partnerships and gifts have to be disclosed, and how to label ads properly.
Why all the fuss?
Being transparent is key – consumers shouldn’t have to work out whether they’re being advertised to. We also appreciate that as parents, you’re concerned that the content your children might see online and on social media is easily identifiable as advertising. We hope this post clears up any concerns you yourself may have, in addition to talking to your children and teens about influencers that they follow featuring ads as part of their content.
Our guidelines are clear – anything that counts as an ad should be clearly labelled as such. The rules are in place to protect consumers and help maintain trust in advertising.
What counts as an ad?
When it comes to influencer advertising and what is classified as an ad, there are a few key things to bear in mind:
• If payment or payment in kind is involved; and
• Brand control – being told what to say in posts or videos, such as key messages to get across. (Editorial ‘control’ usually depends on the agreement between the influencer and the brand. As a rule of thumb, if an influencer isn’t completely free to do and say whatever they want, there could be some level of control).
Sponsorship arrangements, where a brand has paid for association with an influencer but has no control over the message, are not covered by our rules.
We aren’t prescriptive about labels, but recommend using #ad or similar to make it clear; in addition, this should be clearly positioned (i.e. does the viewer have to click ‘see more’ or scroll through paragraphs of text?). In our experience, people more easily understand the implications of #ad than of #sp or #spon. Using #sp or #gift can mean different things in different contexts - and if something is an advert, labelling it #spon is not acceptable.
A recent example where we’ve brought to task an influencer for not labelling ads sufficiently clearly is Louise Thompson, who did not label an Instagram stories post about a makeup brush as an ad.
What actually happens if someone complains about a post?
Once we’ve received a complaint and if we decide to investigate, we will contact the advertiser to inform them and we maintain contact throughout the process.
We monitor adverts proactively but also rely on complaints submitted via our website to determine whether adverts are legal, decent, honest and truthful. If an advertiser is found to have broken the rules, they must withdraw or amend the ad. If they’re unwilling or unable to work with us we can and will impose tougher sanctions which can include referring them to Trading Standards.
Learn more
Our online resource library provides detail on different topics and we also offer a free copy advice service and e-learning modules. If podcasts are your thing, we recently launched one which goes behind the scenes of some of our rulings, where you an find out how we come to the decisions we do.
For more information:
www.asa.org.uk/news/online-influencers-is-it-an-ad.html
www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/recognising-ads-social-media.html
www.asa.org.uk/news/ad-vice-making-clear-that-an-ad-is-an-ad.html