Yahoo Finance Celebrities warned about misleading Instagram ads
Celebrities have been warned over misleading Instagram posts that are not clearly marked as promotions after complaints that scores of high profile users could be breaching consumer rights.
The US and UK are clamping down on the way influential users, who often boast tens of millions of followers, share paid-for material on the Facebook-owned social network.
On Wednesday night the Federal Trade Commission issued warning letters to 90 celebrities urging them to disclose when posts are sponsored clearly and high up in the message.
The UK watchdog, the Advertising Standards Agency, confirmed that it has also been cracking down on the phenomenon, working with companies and high profile users to ensure guidelines are met.
The most recent warning in the US comes after rights organisation Public Citizen raised concerns with the watchdog about the endorsement of 113 celebrities, including Rihanna, Rita Ora and Kylie Jenner.
As well as advising Instagram influencers what kind of posts require disclosure, the Commission told the celebrities they need to flag that content is sponsored early on in the post. t added that including an endorsement hashtag, such as #ad or #sponsored, with other tags at the end of a post is not sufficient. Nor are alternative versions including #sp and #partner.
"Consumers viewing Instagram posts on mobile devices typically see only the first three lines of a longer post unless they click 'more', which many do not know," said the Commission. "The staff's letters informed recipients that when making endorsements on Instagram, they should disclose any material connection above the 'more' button."
It added: "The letters also noted that when multiple tags, hashtags, or links are used, readers may just skip over them, especially when they appear at the end of a long post - meaning that a disclosure placed in such a string is not likely to be conspicuous."
Sponsored lifestyle blogging on Instagram is a lucrative business, but has gathered increasing criticism over its lack of transparency.
In Britain, the Advertising Standards Agency last month upheld a complaint against a beauty blogger for failing to clearly identify the Instagram post as an ad. Sheikbeauty had to edit the post to include "#ad", which had originally read: "@flattummytea 20% off guys!!!! If you've been following me you'll know i used this and I genuinely feel less bloated and a flatter tummy ... oh yessss".
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