ASA Ruling Defines 'Influencer' Following Rate

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has ruled than a blogger featuring a pharmaceutical product on an Instagram post is considered a 'celebrity' and has upheld a complaint made against Sanofi UK and the blogger, ThisMamaLife.

The ASA said that bloggers don't need to have a following akin to David Beckham (55 million) to be considered an online celebrity. 

Within the report, the ASA said:

"We noted Sanofi’s argument regarding the comparatively low number of followers ThisMamaLife had in contrast to notable celebrities. However, we considered that over 30,000 followers indicated that she had the attention of a significant number of people. Given that she was popular with, and had the attention of a large audience, we considered that ThisMamaLife was a celebrity for the purposes of the CAP Code."

Earlier this year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the ASA created a document for influencers providing advice on paid-for posts. The guidelines were drawn up in response to a CMA investigation into consumer protection laws relating to social media influencers. 

Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said: “Influencers can have a huge impact on what their fans decide to buy. People could, quite rightly, feel misled if what they thought was a recommendation from someone they admired turns out to be a marketing ploy.

“You should be able to tell as soon as you look at a post if there is some form of payment or reward involved, so you can decide whether something is really worth spending your hard-earned money on.”

Source : Insight DIY Team

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