REVEALED: How YouTube ‘vloggers’ secretly cash in on YOUR child
MILLIONS of teenagers are being misled by YouTube stars who have pocketed hundreds of thousands of pounds to promote top brands in their online videos without declaring that they are being paid, it can be revealed.
Style guru Zoella and beauty expert Tanya Burr are among vloggers who have duped fans into believing they are making sincere recommendations for stores including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Topshop.
But The Mail on Sunday has established that the stars are earning up to 18 per cent commission from each item of clothing or make-up sold. Advertising rules state that vloggers should tell fans if they are being paid to promote goods.
Last night, the Advertising Standards Authority said it would investigate our findings.
Tory MP Damian Collins, chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, said: ‘Parents should be really concerned if these stars are targeting their teenage children with product placement.’
Zoella, real name Zoe Sugg, has more than 11 million subscribers
‘Parents should be really concerned’
thanks to her wholesome videos filmed weekly at her home in Brighton. But what the 27-yearold does not tell fans is that if they buy the products she recommends through links below her videos, then she receives a commission.
When viewers click on a link, they are redirected to the brand’s web page via RewardStyle, whose web address flashes up on screen for a split second. The US-based firm receives a commission on sales, which it passes on to YouTube stars.
In a video posted last December, Zoella tells viewers: ‘There’s so many nice things on Asos right now.’ Clutching a £95 cardigan, she says: ‘This is the most gorgeous and soft long cardigan I have ever laid my hands on.’
Under the video, she provides a link to buy the cardigan.
Asos pays commission of up to ten per cent to stars like Zoella but brands such as Topshop and Urban Outfitters are understood to give her up to 18 per cent.
According to a source, Zoella earned £40,000 during a three- month period over Christmas from commission on sales through this method, known as affiliate marketing.
Tanya Burr, who has 3.7 million subscribers, has been using affiliate links for two-and-a-half years without disclosing she has been paid. In a video of her new home last year, she showed off a £189 Nespresso coffee machine from John Lewis, which pays up to seven per cent commission.
Other YouTubers using the links include yoga teacher Cat Meffan, who endorses fitness wear from M&S, and fashion vlogger Samantha Maria, 28. She posted a video about being a new mum in which she cradles her baby and plugs a pink Boohoo jumper. Despite claiming the video was not sponsored, she included an affiliate link. Earlier this month, some vloggers began to disclose that they were using affiliate links. But following The Mail on Sunday’s exposé and the threat of an ASA investigation, Zoella and others have started to come clean by editing recent posts and explicitly stating that they make money from the links.
A spokesman for Gleam Futures, which represents the YouTube stars, said: ‘All of the videos are entirely editorial, made independently by the clients themselves without any external guidance or influence whatsoever from third parties.
‘In March the ASA published new guidance on affiliate marketing. Since then, we have been working closely with our clients to help them adhere to the recommendations in the guidance.’
YouTube said ‘creators’ should notify the company of paid promotions. A John Lewis spokesman said bloggers should make it clear if they earn money from promoting its products.
Zoella earned £40,000 in just three months