LONDON (CelebrityAccess) So-called “influencers” have been asked by a British authority to declare if they are being paid to endorse products on social media, with 16 celebrities already agreeing to do so.
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced today that celebs including Rita Ora, Ellie Goulding and Alexa Chung have agreed to disclose clearly if they have been paid or received any gifts or loans of products they endorse on their social networks, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The announcement comes on the heels of the Fyre Festival documentaries that highlighted the significant contribution influencers – in that case fashion models – can have on commerce. Fyre Festival organizers paid influencers (possibly as much as $250,000 for a single post) to hashtag the festival, which raised attention to the event exponentially.
“Influencers can have a huge impact on what their fans decide to buy. People could, quite rightly, feel misled if what they thought was a recommendation from someone they admired turns out to be a marketing ploy,” CMA CEO Andrea Coscelli said. “You should be able to tell as soon as you look at a post if there is some form of payment or reward involved, so you can decide whether something is really worth spending your hard-earned money on.”
CMA launched an investigation last summer into “concerns that social media stars are not properly declaring when they have been paid, or otherwise rewarded, to endorse goods or services.”
The CMA also said it has sent warning letters to “a number of other celebrities, urging them to review their practices where some concerns have been identified.”
The announcement comes as a supposed comedy “The Social Ones” is released, a mockumentary on influencers.
