Ad Standards makes 2nd ruling against influencer marketing under new code
A second influencer post has been found to breach the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) Code of Ethics’ distinguishable advertising rule.
Complaints were lodged against a post for Tom Ford fragrance by Rozalia Russian, with the comment that the post was ‘clearly’ a paid ad but lacked transparency with no acknowledgement of its sponsored nature.
The case comes just two weeks after the first breach was released, pertaining to a post by Anna Heinrich for Runaway The Label. The updated distinguishable rule came into effect in February and outlines what is deemed adequate methods of disclosing partnerships on social media, such as using the hashtags #ad, #advert or #paidpartnership.
The second ruling against an influencer post was for Tom Ford
The post by Russian showed her hand holding a bottle of Tom Ford Soleil Blanc with the caption ‘summer in a bottle @tomfordbeauty’.
Tom Ford did not participate in the community panel proceedings, and did not respond when the panel ruled against the advertisement.
The panel determined the post was an ad as the product placement and display of the brand name would attract attention to the brand in a manner designed to promote them.
Similar to the previous case, the panel referred to the practice note which says that that simply tagging the brand’s handle on Instagram was not sufficient for indicating the content was part of a paid partnership, therefore the panel upheld the complaint.
At the time of writing the post has not been updated to include a paid partnership disclosure. Mumbrella has contacted Russian’s management for comment.
