ASA ruling on influencer advertisement

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint that an advertisement posted on Instagram was not identifiable as marketing communication.

The Instagram post featured two nutcracker themed cushions being arranged on a bed with the text “AMAZON FIND nutcracker cushions” and the caption “Comment LINK if you’d like the link to these super cute nutcracker cushions! They got lots of love on my last post about putting Graces [sic] Christmas decs [sic] up so I wanted to dedicate a post to them!”.

The company, Yingyi Maoyi Youxiangongsi t/a LANPN, did not respond to ASA. The influencer, Gemma Markland, denied any contact with the seller or company. She did not consider the post an ad because she had not been gifted the product, been paid to promote them, or asked to review them.

The link provided by Gemma Markland was an affiliate link which would earn her commission, and therefore ASA determined that the post was directly connected with the supply of goods and was therefore a marketing communication for the purposes of the Code. ASA considered that the video would be understood by consumers as documenting her new home furnishings, and as the only text making clear that commission would be received was available via a link, it was considered insufficient to identify the post as an ad.

Yingyi Maoyi Youxiangongsi t/a LANPN was also referred to CAP’s Compliance team.