Six influencers to be named and shamed over breaking ad rules on Instagram

Love Island’s Belle Hassan is among those to be named and shamed
ITV
Josh Salisbury19 January 2022

Six influencers will be named and shamed for not disclosing ads on their Instagram accounts despite repeated warnings, the advertising regular has said.

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) said Francesca Allen, Jess Gale, Eve Gale, Belle Hassan, Jodie Marsh and Anna Vakili all failed to heed warnings about posting paid-for content on their platforms.

All but one of the influencers, who have a combined following of nearly 5 million, were Love Island contestants.

Now the watchdog will take out ads against the influencers’ accounts to tell their fans that products recommended by them may have actually been paid for by brands.

The ad will read: “[Name] has been sanctioned by the UK’s ad regulator for not declaring ads on this platform.

“Be aware that products and services recommended or featured by this influencer may have been paid for by those brands.

“Our non-compliant social media influencer page at asa.org.uk is regularly updated to inform consumers of those who break these rules.”

The regulator said it was considering further sanctions if needed, including working with social media platforms to have the content of non-compliant influencers removed, or referring influencers to bodies such as Trading Standards for possible fines.

All six of the influencers had already been publicly featured on the ASA’s website for not following the rules.

Fellow Love Island contestant Amber Gill was added to the site this week for “ongoing non-disclosure” but is not among those who will have ads targeted at her account.

The regulator said she could also be subject to further sanctions if she does not follow the rules.

“For the minority of influencers that repeatedly fail to disclose their paid-for posts, it’s important their social media followers are told,” Shahriar Coupal, Director of Advertising Policy & Practice at the ASA, said.

“In a new front of enforcement activity, we’re using targeted ads to highlight the breaches of six social media personalities to the very same audience they’re seeking to influence.

“When we see the necessary changes to their disclosure practices, we’ll call off the ads.  But, where non-compliance persists, we’ll look to more direct forms of enforcement.”

A “monitoring sweep” by the regulator previously discovered that ad rules were only being followed on influencers’ stories, reels and posts around 35 per cent of the time.

It recommends the use of ‘#ad’ in a  prominent manner as the “clearest way” of following advertising rules.

Alternatively a platform’s own disclosure tools, such as Instagram’s Paid Partnership tool, can also help to distinguish advertising from other content, it said.

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