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.

Yes, within a 12 month period if you feature it on your grid (which your choice to do so or not) you should make relationship to the brand clear. The CMA says this includes product placement where there is an associated payment or other incentive (so discounts not available to the general public would be captured by this).

As I said before, I don't believe this has to be AD unless the brand has controlled it (eg by asking for a specific hashtag to be used) but there should be some upfront disclosure like Sponsored or Advertisement Feature before the rest of the blurb, IMO.

If you don't want to disclose the gifts on your grid. Don't show them. It's pretty simple.

I follow a few Scandinavian accounts because I like the look of them and because I haven't the foggiest what they are saying half the time so if they are trying to influence me it wouldn't work. I see that more like Pinterest.

I find most US bloggers irritating so I can't think of any of them that I follow. They are still bound by FTC regulations though which requires affiliate marketing to be disclosed in the same way that the rules apply in the UK. Complain to the FTC if it bugs you that much > www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/submit-consumer-complaint-ftc

Wow!! They've taken this badly! And lots of them with the same written messages in stories... the agencies must have done a mass mailshot to them all. I've seen plenty of #unpaidad today which I think defeats the object of transparency completely! They really aren't getting it are they?!!

Nearly every single one had posted about it being unfair and making it awful for followers and moaning on about how they only work with brands they love. Wonder if the asa will clamp down further especially if they are finding ways around it using totally stupid hashtags. An ad is an ad is an ad. It doesn't matter if you're not paid in cold hard cash. The payment is the product and you know this very well!!!

I’ll be repeating much of what’s already been said, but regardless if it’s a transaction of cold, hard cash, services or product, it needs to be tagged appropriately. It’s not ‘awful’ for followers to know the circumstances of the product placement, and anyone who gets called out in the future for not following disclosure rules will be swiftly curated off my feed.

I’m fine with affiliate links though can’t be arsed with ‘swipe up to learn which brand’... just tell me the brand and if it still interests me, I’ll swipe up so I don’t have to google it. I’m being honest, I use amazons affiliate link for charity so please don’t be shy about using CLEAR affiliate links on your Instagram.

I hope there will be an EU wide crack down on all bloggers etc There’s a few Irish lot who are royally taking the mickey.

If they ‘love’ small brands they will buy from them and support them that way - talking about businesses you buy from is better for followers and for businesses. Put your money where your mouth is.

I’m currently putting off buying a kitchen from an ‘Insta’ popular kitchen brand until I find out if they gifted or massively discounted high profile instagrammers a kitchen. I want to support this small business but for some reason will feel really irritated if they’ve been part of the murky gifting practices.

The influencers just don’t get it, you can’t advertise without declaring it to be an advert. I love that Mod calls it ‘this suggested way of disclaoing’!
It’s not ‘suggested’ it’s the rules; follow them...simple!

Sorry disclosing...not disclaoing...not sure what happened there!

There will certainly be some interesting photo shoots now for some of these influencers now or every post will have to start #ad. Left a bit, right a bit...... need to crop the dishwasher, the TV, the washing machine, need to change this outfit, the kids' clothes. Interesting times ahead and no pretence any more that they are just like us! Just salespeople doing their jobs - selling.

The gifting thing is bizarre. Gifts are a form of payment and they absolutely are taxable and always have been. This is one of the reasons that companies don’t like gifts, they are taxable.

The tax man will catch up on this. This isn’t just about fairness and competition it’s about revenue for the government which hasn’t been paid.

Yep, we are just not allowed to accept gifts in my work. Way, way too much trouble. But, oh the indignation of some of them.

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if they have been already mentioned but a few of my favourite accounts to follow are corporatestylestory for work wear

pippa.and.amber her style is so effortlessly cool

notbuyingnew for sustainable 30 wears ideas. She really makes the most of her wardrobe

It’s really messy out there. Some are aggressively disclosing everything, some are doing nothing/little and some are so ambiguous you just can’t tell. Personally I don’t like #ad at very front if it’s not a post where money has changed hands but understand that’s the rules now.
Easy to put anything tagged in the image at the bottom of comment as a list (as DMBL40 has been doing for a while) with full disclosure (before hashtags). If it’s tagged it should absolutely be declared if gifted or paid - how is this difficult? If they’ve taken the time to tag the brand then it’s hardly a days work to let people know the impartiality of the relationship...
Also, not good enough to blanket ‘some of the brands tagged are gifts/spon’ it’s important to me to know which ones.
Sure HMRC is going to have a field day - so many famous people in the past caught out by tax bills. If influencers are unaware of their tax obligations they really should be looking at getting advice pronto.

@IrisApfelRocks thanks! Like the look of pippa and amber. The corporate one is a bit ad heavy for me

For businesses to deduct gifts as an expense for tax, they can't be given without the expectation of anything in return otherwise they would be considered business entertainment. So for every brand gifting product to bloggers and deducting them for tax, which I am sure nearly all of them are, the brands have to have a purpose of gifting it in exchange for advertising. Hence AD, and taxable income in the hands of the influencer.

@MaryPoppinjay - wonder whose kitchen you're talking about! And that really is the insta problem. In the absence of guidelines, we are all making our own assumptions about people and it all gets very murky. I do know that my husband and myself both have well paid, full time, professional jobs and couldn't begin to have the houses, lifestyles, holidays of some of these "influencers". So of course we're wondering! Neither of us are given #gifts - our professions don't allow it. #justbehonest

The penny is starting to drop with the interiors bloggers now, I think. This should be interesting to watch

@AtHomeInFrance ditto! We’ve missed holidays and made sacrifices to save for a nice kitchen. Bet some of these people paid for the labour only as Bob Builder wouldn’t comp it.

Emma Hill (who I very much like for weekend style) has been extremely open about her (paid for) new kitchen and always seemed to be quite transparent before the new guidelines. In my mind this is how it is done gracefully

Yes we have to declare every gift too. What i don't get it the faux bafflement. Why bother with #unpaidad? Why say ' am I supposed to #ad every time I wear a dress I was gifted a year ago?'. Yes. Yes you are. It's an ad. If it's gifted and not on your feed or story then you don't have to #ad. If it does go on Insta then it's an ad. It's all disingenuous. I've seen influencers this weekend posting things like 'this is not an ad but I'm tagging m&s because hundreds of you will all me where I bought this from?'
Erm no. If it's an ad just put ad. Stop complaining it makes you like terrible.

Stop throwing toys out of the pram because those gullible, pesky followers are being given some accountability. Stop sulking because the unscrupulous gravy train is coming to an end.

The new rules take it a step too far for me. I was watching a story yesterday that was tagged as #ad, because the poster was wearing a top by a brand they had worked with previously. You could barely see the top, the brand wasn’t tagged or mentioned in anyway.

I’m all for transparency, and think it’s important that they’re honest. But this just seemed ridiculous. If the brand was mentioned I could understand the need for the #, but you could see less than half of the top! (Unless this person was just trying to make a passive aggressive point about the new rules!)

I think it’s a bit distracting, for sure, but just confirms how much of Instagram is advertising - I would be very happy to see fewer ads on my feeds, it’s overwhelming at the moment. It could well have been someone trying to make a passive aggressive point about the “new” rules or maybe they just wanted to play it safe. You can guarantee that even if someone does a heartfelt post about a personal crisis some numpty will ask where their top is from . The simplest thing surely is just to not wear something gifted. Maybe they don’t have anything that isn’t!

I agree that the reactions I've seen this weekend on Instagram have been wholly unedifying. I think will will be eye opening quite now much is gifted.

I don't understand why the print media aren't held to the same disclosure standard. Surely their reviews rely on gifted products and they have a very interdependent relationship with advertisers? I was reading the Sunday papers this afternoon whilst faffing around on my phone and I'm not quite sure why the media seem to get away with many of the same antics.

You’re probably right pleasedonotbend ! It’s crazy to see just how many of the posts are actually ads! I think she made a point or saying she’d bought that particular top, but because she had worked with the brand it still counted as an ad (could be getting her confused with someone else though, they all blend into one!)

I suppose anything that forces people to be honest is a good thing, even if I personally did find that a bit OTT.

And I’m sure people ask where stuff is from just for the sake of it! It can be the most plain basic white blouse, or random pjs, but there’s always at least one who asks!

I bet there's hardly any that ask but it's always a good excuse for an 'in getting LOADS of messages about this' story

Sts40 still only hashtagging #gift when she said last week she would be now have to #ad for gifts. I've unfollowed so many this weekend. Spoilt entitled and disingenuous the lot of them. Cannot actually believe I was watching one big ad. Like literally all their clothes shoes bags makeup food accessories.... What a crock of shit.

I just think it’s odd that the complaining happens publically on their accounts, to the people that they are ‘influencing’, it’s a bit naive.