The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld more complaints about popular Kiwi social media influencer Simone Anderson after she failed to disclose ads in series of Instagram stories.
Its not the first time Anderson has been in hot water over breaching advertising rules. She had four complaints against her upheld with the ASA in July last year after it found she had not clearly labelled her content as advertising.
The ASA Complaints Board released a decision on January 19 after two people complained about two stories created by Anderson promoting her activewear brand, Embrace Active.
The advertisements showcase several items of activewear clothing over 20 Instagram stories. The final story — part of a series in what one complainant described was “five minutes worth of content” — was the only one to feature the label "ad@embrace_active".
The ASA ruled that ads should be flagged in the first interaction consumers have with content, saying that its influencer guidelines state that “every post that includes ad content and each segment of a story that includes ad content needs to be identified as advertising”.
Anderson responded to the ASA that she was unaware of the rules.
“It was my understanding that according to the ASA guidelines you only needed to place 'ad’ on the slides if the brand is being tagged/advertised and directing people to it," she told the ASA.
The ASA ruled that the advertisement is not to be used again in its current form.
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