Social media influencers face renewed scrutiny from advertising watchdog

‘People shouldn’t have to play the detective to work out if they’re being advertised to,’ says Advertising Standards Authority chief executive Guy Parker

The ASA says consumers have been left confused about whether they are viewing advertising or not (Getty)

Social media influencers who promote brands without clearly labelling their posts as commercial face renewed scrutiny from the advertising watchdog.

Launching a consultation on the issue on Thursday, the Advertising Standards Authority said consumers had been left confused about what they are viewing.

“People shouldn’t have to play the detective to work out if they’re being advertised to,” said ASA chief executive Guy Parker.

Brands have increasingly signed lucrative deals with people who have a large number of followers on Snapchat, Instagram and other social media platforms.

The tactic has been a valuable way to reach consumers, particularly younger people who are harder to target through traditional means, such as broadcast television or magazines. It has also made some influencers – who can charge thousands of pounds for posting a photo – very rich.

The ASA said lines are now blurred between advertising and editorial content, leading to uncertainty for consumers and for influencers themselves, who may not know what is and is not allowed.

Under industry rules, ads must be obviously recognisable as such so that people know when they’re being advertised to. The ASA said that when people are not sure what is advertising and what isn’t, trust in the whole sector is damaged.

The watchdog is asking for views about what level and type of commercial influence over editorial content people expect to be informed about.

It also wants to know how people interpret specific labels used to indicate that content is advertising – for example the #ad hashtag – and the extent to which wording, placement, visibility and style might impact on people’s ability to identify commercial content.

Mr Parker said that while social media influencers may be a relatively new phenomenon, advertising rules haven’t changed.

“That means the status of a tweet, blog, vlog, Instagram post or story should be clear,” he said. “Our call for evidence will play an important part in helping us understand how consumers recognise and respond to online labelling of ads and how we apply the rules in this area.”

The ASA’s announcement comes after one of the biggest platforms for influencers – Instagram – announced that it was cracking down on personal accounts that make money through the app.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, said in December that it will make a host of features available only to people who sign up for expensive business accounts. Many of these features are the ones that allow influencers to measure the reach they have and to automate the process of gathering followers.