The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) has upheld a complaint against Ellie Kelly for failing to identify posts on Instagram Stories offering a 15% discount code for skincare and make-up retailer Look Fantastic as advertisements.
A complainant said the influencer misled her followers by not using hashtag #AD on each of the two individual posts promoting the discount code. Kelly instead denoted that the posts were paid adverts for Look Fantastic in a later post uploaded to her Stories.
"All previous stories were in collaboration with @lookfantastic who I’m delighted to have worked with (emojis) a 15% discount code and specific swipe up links are on those stories (emoji) #AD," she wrote in the subsequent post.
In her response to the claim, Kelly told the ASAI that it was "a matter of forgetting to type the word AD as she had so many stories to upload. She said it was a simple mistake and not a case of misleading anyone as that is not in her nature. She said she included AD on some of the stories and the main post on her feed."
Look Fantastic also confirmed to the ASAI that influencers were contractually required to ensure any marketing material posted on social media was clearly identified as such and that they had spoken to Kelly's team to reiterate as such.
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Ultimately, the ASAI complaints committee said the adverts breached four sections of its code and ruled that they must not reappear in their current form. It also reminded Kelly to "provide the necessary disclosures where necessary in future Stories".
The Kelly case was one of 13 complaints recently investigated by the ASAI, 12 of which were found to be in breach of the ASAI code on grounds related to misleading/substantiation, recognisability and pricing, health and beauty, and financial services.
Just one of the 13 cases across radio, television, online, email and outdoor adverts was not upheld by the complaints committee. This a case involved a number of complaints against Paddy Power for a TV advert accused of making gambling seem fun and "part of normal life", sexism against men, and racism against English people.
Cases upheld involved complaints about a "misleading" LifeStyle Sports email promotion, a Volkswagen advert claiming its cars were carbon-neutral, a Toyota advert claiming a car that would "never run out of energy", and an Apple TV+ promotion the complainant couldn't redeem.
"The latest complaints bulletin from the ASAI illustrates our ability to ensure that ads in Ireland stick to the advertising rules," said Orla Twomey, ASAI chief executive.
"The main role of the ASAI, is to ensure that advertisements and marketing communications are legal, truthful, decent, and honest, prepared with a sense of social responsibility to the consumer and society and with proper respect for the principles of fair competition."
(Pic: Getty Images)
