ASA upholds complaints about posts
Four complaints about social media influencer Simone Anderson have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The authority’s complaints board said the content she posted on Instagram met the definition of advertisements but its commercial nature was not made sufficiently clear to audiences.
Three complainants said a post in which she posed wearing activewear on the beach with the words: ‘‘Our little stroll this morning was so gusty!! Crop and tights@aimn.oceania ‘Simone10’’’ was misleading because it was not made clear that there was a commercial relationship with activewear brand Aim’n.
Another complainant was concerned that there was a lack of transparency about posts regarding a weekend trip to Auckland’s Cordis hotel.
When the first complaint was received, Anderson amended the post to include the hashtag #Gifted and explained that the ‘‘Simone10’’ was an Aim’n Oceania affiliate code meaning someone using it would get 10 per cent discount and the influencer would receive 5 per cent of sales.
In another response to the authority, Anderson’s management said her relationships with both Aim’n Activewear and Cordis Hotels were not controlled or guided by the companies.
The hotel stay was given in exchange for social media content.
In its decision, the complaints board said there was nothing wrong with being paid with gifts, free services and hotel stays to create content – but when this happened, there needed to be full disclosure upfront about the commercial arrangement.
It said the original posts had been presented as organic content, without an obvious commercial intent.
The majority of the board said the label #Gifted was not clear enough to signal that there was a commercial arrangement between the advertiser and the brand company whose products were being promoted. The same decision was reached with regard to the Cordis post. The posts need to be removed or amended.