Advertising Watchdog Threatens to Name and Shame After It Discovers Widespread Ad Rules Breaches

The UK advertising watchdog has warned social media influencers that they face being named and shamed, after a spot check of posts found widespread flouting of advertising rules.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) monitored the Instagram accounts of 122 UK-based influencers over a three-week period last September, which involved assessing more than 24,000 posts, to see if they were following rules that state they must declare when their posts are ads.

It found that while nearly a quarter of the posts were ads, only 35% of those were clearly labelled as such.

The ASA said the level of noncompliance with the UK ad code was “unacceptable” and it has contacted all the social influencers, and a number of brands, putting them “on notice” that future breaches could lead to them being publicly named and shamed by the regulator.

I wonder why they didn’t slap on a fine for this?