TikTok Is Full Of Shady Secret Advertisements
https://www.vox.comIn spring 2020, several large, family-friendly TikTok accounts posted videos where they pulled pranks on their friends and family members. They all used toys from Basic Fun!’s Joker Prank Shop line, and all of the videos prominently featured them buying the merchandise at their local Walmart.
The posts sure seemed like ads, but few of them indicated that their creators were paid to promote the toys to an especially vulnerable audience: kids.
Very few parties seem interested in knowing or following the rules.
TikTok is full of secret sponsored content, or sponcon. Even some of its largest accounts don’t label paid promotions properly, if at all.
This problem isn’t unique to TikTok. Instagram has been dealing with it for years, giving brands plenty of time to figure out influencer advertising strategies before TikTok came along. By the time the platform was just a year old, it was already awash in sponsored content — some labeled, some not.
But TikTok’s undisclosed ad problem seems to be particularly bad. The app is believed to be especially addictive, with users spending far more time on TikTok than on competitors’ apps.