Complaint about Dublin blogger among those upheld by ASAI
A complaint against Boots and blogger Gracy Mongey, who runs 'Faces By Grace' has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI).
The complaint regarded a sponsored post on social media by Ms Mongey which was not marked as such.
The complaint considered that it was clear from the post that the influencer was working for Boots Ireland and expressed concern that the post had not been hashtagged accordingly with #sp.
Boots argued that they provided Ms Mongey with a briefing document which included the detail for the promotion and also, a request for the inclusion of #sp or #ad on posts. A link to the ASAI guidelines was included also.
The post was found to be in breach of section 3.31 and 3.32 of the code and the complaint was upheld by the ASAI.
It is the second time a collaboration between a brand and a blogger has been upheld.
The instance was reported in the ASAI's latest complaints bulletin which contains 16 case reports on complaints recently investigated by the ASAI, which were across email, social media, internet, radio and print advertising.
"The latest complaints bulletin from the ASAI illustrates our ability to handle complaints across a large number of mediums," said Orla Twomey, Chief Executive of the ASAI.
For the second time, a complaint involving a collaboration between a brand and an influencer / blogger has been upheld by the Complaints Committee.
"Over the past few years, we have spent considerable time highlighting awareness in relation to advertising best practice within this space to ensure all relevant parties are equipped with the knowledge and resources to correctly identify commercial marketing content across their platforms.
"The ASAI is committed to protecting consumers in relation to advertising – across all mediums - and our approach is to work with all advertisers, rather than against them, to ultimately ensure that all marketing communications are legal, truthful, decent and honest."
The complaints upheld also include a Ryanair ad which depicted an apparently drunk teenager lying on a beach asleep next to a glass bottle with the text "this could be you".
The ASAI found it normalised and encouraged drunken behaviour.
