Can we chat about fashion Instagrammers/influencers..

[Cherrypie32]

..because I don’t have anyone in real life to carp about it to. So, I follow a few, am addicted to the stories/feeds of some but don’t always know why. The ‘high end’ ones, The Frugality, Dress Like A Mum, Emma Hill etc pop up but quite designer and high end for me. I like the ramblings of Does My Bum but I’m nothing like her body shape so don’t wear her clothes. There are a few more ‘high street’ ones I follow, Steal My Style, What Kathy Did, Forty not Frumpy and more but they tend to be repetitive. Is this because they are so heavily sponsored to flog something? At the moment they are all banging on bout All Saints leather bikers and maxi skirts. And they all copy each other so there’s not much new to look at. There are a few I follow with nowhere near the amount of followers that seem more creative and have different body shapes so I presume that they have more liberty to do this as aren’t under afflilate deals.
I don’t need advice to ‘unfollow’, I enjoy looking at it all, just interested in how it all works really.

ASA shouldn't need to prove whether something is a gift or not. Influencers surely can remember? The default position shouldn't be to try to conceal whether something is gifted. If most influencers are thinking they won't disclose because it can't be proved then this industry is even more problematic than it appears.

It just seems to me to really undermine the authority of the CMA if they have rules which they are realistically never going to able to enforce. Or if their plan from the start is to have a few "show trials".

Of course the burden of proof is on the ASA, surely? We're all innocent of any wrongdoing unless the government can show otherwise.

Why won't they be able to enforce them? There is photographic evidence of holidays/clothes/sofas/watches all over the feeds. Anyone who has done any basic money laundering or fraud training knows that a red flag is someone whose lifestyle appears incompatible with their declared income. HMRC and CMA would have a field day on instagram.

Yes, sure - but on a granular level when looking at individual items of, say, clothing or make up products I don't know how an influencer accused of failing to disclose a gifted product could reasonably be expected to defend herself.

If I set as an influencer tomorrow and posted about a jar of Emma hardy cleansing balm I bought 6 months ago, how could I prove it wasn't a gift? I don't have a receipt and all that shows up on my bank statement is Space NK.

Not necessarily true, I worked with someone who stole & resold stuff from the company on ebay, etc (obviously I was unaware). He was also incredibly frugal (witness to this) so the combo of saving hard & stealing meant he had about 30k saved up. When he was caught, the judge ruled that the vast majority of that 30k belonged to the employer when in reality it was probably half. The police only had evidence of a certain amount but he didn’t have proof to prove otherwise.

If I set as an influencer tomorrow and posted about a jar of Emma hardy cleansing balm I bought 6 months ago, how could I prove it wasn't a gift? I don't have a receipt and all that shows up on my bank statement is Space NK.

You wouldn't need to prove it was a gift unless someone complained about you and even then ASA would only probably ask you to explain the circumstances. You tell ASA you bought it 6 months ago and everything is dandy. ASA won't go rooting through their bank statements!

I don't have a receipt and all that shows up on my bank statement is Space NK.

I doubt they would bother investigating in this much detail but anything bought online will have transactional information held by the retailer as they always have to know stock levels of every item. Even stuff you have bought in store may have your email address linked to that transaction or if on the 14.12.18 you spent £50 in Space NK, Clapham the head office would probably be able to see what broke down that £50, it just depends on their stock managing system.

But just crossing my fingers that the ASA won't choose to come after me isn't the way the justice system is supposed to work. Having a law that citizens cannot reasonably defend themselves against is contrary to the rule of law.

And I'm pretty sure the rules relating to proceeds of crime differ widely from those relating to breach of ASA guidance.

In the future I think it’s likely most receipts will be emailed to the buyer, more environmentally friendly & easier to manage.

RCohle - are you in the industry? ASA is an industry body. CMA is a government body. Only CMA can enforce the law. ASA can try to ensure that their guidelines are followed by the advertising industry but they don't really have any enforcement powers, I don't think.

Of course influencers can defend themselves against being accused of malpractice - keep correspondence, keep spreadsheets, keep receipts. Best defence is obviously to understand how the law applies to you and stick to it. Same as every other business!

Why don’t you contact the ASA and ask for their guidance?

@IDontNeedNoPyjamas in fact the opposite- I'm asking why shouldn't everyone else do it!? Rules for everyone when it's a global platform.

ToBeClear Oh well I can't argue with that. The platforms could be doing a lot more as well.

Yes, I bet Instagram is a tax minefield as well!!!

Am I right in thinking HMRC should be looking much more closely at this? One fashion blogger (c.20k followers) I follow recently said 95% of what she wears is #gifted! All mid-premium level brands. I was genuinely shocked at the sheer level of it. Had absolutely no idea and felt a little annoyed if I’m honest as I felt misled at the ‘curation’ element when really it is a curation of promotional pieces only.

If people are being gifted this much stuff surely it is payment in kind or a benefit and should be taxed accordingly.
If a blogger receives clothing/goods to the retail value of £50-100k per annum and they had to then pay (income or some sort of taxable benefit) tax on this then they may be a little more choosy in what they accept and wear. Then we would be getting a more accurate representation of what they would actually wear.
Tax avoidance is criminal and public services miss out. There is a lot of justifiable criticism of large multi nationals avoiding tax but huge amounts of bloggers/influencers are knee deep in it (whether they are aware of it is another matter) too and collectively it would amount to a not inconsiderable sum if it was paid properly by all involved. Companies/Brands will be writing it off as a marketing expense so tax is not been paid there.
They may be paying tax on monies received for ‘paid promotions’ but an entire wardrobe every year? I suspect not...

What am I an influencer? Lord no!

I'm not worried about how influencers can defend themselves from false allegations from any kind of personal concern. I just think oodles of (in practice) unenforceable legislation and guidance doesn't really help anyone and is a creeping infringement of civil liberties that people seem generally unconcerned about. I sometimes think govt enthusiasm to be seen to "do something" prevents measures being properly thought through.

In practice I just try and teach my kids to think critically about social media and examine the motivations behind a lot of these influencers. To be honest I'm always surprised by how switched on kids seem about what is advertising. Doesn't mean it's not having a subliminal effect though.

Lots of followers are reporting Instagrammers and i think that's why the asa have clamped down. They were not totally under the radar, people are getting more fed up being manipulated and supported time and again. If you ever read the old mn threads about these issues last year you would see that a lot of people were retiring influencers to the asa.

I for one hope more people report breaches, I know I will. I'm sick to death of Insta in its current form and can't wait to see the back of Instagrammer influencers.

Reporting. Not retiring.

I do think that the pearl clutching is coming from people who also wear 95% gifted stuff and now realise their followers are going to see that. That must be uncomfortable.

You've portrayed yourself as having impeccable taste and style..... And now everyone is gonna see you're just wearing really expensive stuff that's plopped into your PO Box and you've actually done precious little shopping yourself.

There are people who are already transparent about it and give no fucks that you know about all the gifting. Kat Farmer wears outfits comprised mainly of gifts but since she's been open about each items origin for the past year or more, it's not gonna change much for her and there will be little discernable difference on her feed.

Whereas someone who has built their brand and income on Style but has implied by omission that they went out and chose that item in a discerning manner and handed over their visa, is now in a bit of an embarrassing situation. Their feed is gonna suddenly be eye opening and they will likely lose followers, though who knows how many.

What about LIKEtoKNOW.it posts do they need to be #ad?

I ask because rewardStyle is a global affiliate platform and many UK Instagrammers use it without declaring affiliate or ad.

Yes absolutely, it is an affiliate programme. Affiliate links are always ADs under ASA guidance, that's not even a grey area. I don't know how so many influencers have been able to get away with not disclosing them as ads for so long.

@PleaseDoNotBend so how do you police the 1000s of posts under #liketkit?

@ToBeClear It's funny you should ask that, I was wondering that myself. A fashion blog that I follow uses this incessantly with absolutely no #aff or #ad disclosure.

How do we report? ASA website is confusing.