The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has started naming and shaming defaulters of its guidelines for social media influencers.
Actors Ranveer Singh (Manyavar), Jacqueline Fernandez (Colorbar Cosmetics) and Urvashi Rautela along with social media stars Jannat Zubair Rahmani and Faiz Baloch were among the prominent names mentioned in its first Report on Influencer Advertising Guidelines for failing to comply with disclosure labels on the first instance and on subsequent routine checks. The report covers the period from July to December last year.
The report lists the influencers and brands that failed to comply with the Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media, which the ASCI brought out on May 27, 2021.
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ASCI said it screened about 5,000 posts, stories and feeds from influencer social media handles and completed processing 719 posts that were considered to be prima facie violations of the guidelines.
Of the total complaints processed, 21 percent originated from consumers and the rest were picked up by ASCI’s artificial intelligence-based surveillance. Most complaints from consumers were about Instagram feeds and stories.
The ASCI’s recommendations received 86 percent compliance from influencers. Of the 719 posts processed, 577 (80 percent) influencers voluntarily amended or withdrew them. Of the remaining 142 complaints, 121 were upheld by the ASCI’s Consumer Complaints Council and influencers were asked to withdraw or modify their posts.
Disclosure violations
Among categories, fashion & lifestyle emerged on top (29 percent) with the most violations, followed by cosmetics (19 percent), food & beverages (13 percent) and personal care (12 percent).
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The violations were mostly in the form of missing disclosures, inconsistent disclosures (in Instagram stories, for instance, while the first story may have the disclosure, the ones after won’t have any disclosure) and incorrect disclosure placement, where disclosure labels were not easily visible.
Brands associated with the violations included Aveda, available at Nykaa (influencers Sonam Babani and Karishma Sakhrani), Vivo Mobile Communication (Shakti Singh Yadav), Radisson Hotel Group - Meetha Radisson Hotel (Anushka Sen), Kama Ayurveda (Sonam Babani) and Malabar Gold & Diamonds (Tashveen Singh).
“We will continue to educate influencers and brands about the need for transparency and honest representation on digital platforms,” said Manisha Kapoor, secretary general of the ASCI. “Overall compliance for ASCI is over 95 percent and we believe we will reach similar numbers on the influencer guidelines as well.”
The influencer guidelines came into effect on June 14, 2021. The ASCI started an online portal ASCI. Social for influencers and brands to familiarise themselves with the guidelines and a tool to guide them towards being more responsible and transparent on their social media handles.
(Edited by : Priyanka Deshpande)
First Published: Jan 27, 2022 5:05 PM IST
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