Advertising watchdog issues guidance for 'influencers' after Mrs Hinch bans

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has issued fresh guidance to stop influencers from using their platform to sell products without making it clear that they are doing so.It comes just one week after two Instagram posts by Sophie Hinchcliffe - better known as Mrs Hinch - have been banned after she failed to make clear to her followers that she was advertising her own products.

Both ads, posted last year, cannot be shared on Mrs Hinch's social media again moving forward.The new guidance from the agency seeks to "ensure that advertising content posted by influencers is clear about what it is."The Advertising watchdogs last week said that the commercial intent of the a post in which Mrs Hinch promoted her own book was "ambiguous".They noted that the line "Mrs Hinch Life in Lists", and her statement that it was "In my own notebook of course", only appeared at the end of the ad, concluding: "We considered the ad was not immediately clear as to Ms Hinchliffe’s commercial relationship with the notebook."The second banned post featured heart-shaped bowls of varying sizes and the text: "On a right roll here.

Even put some 'nibbles' (In my own hinch heart bowls, I love em) #hinchxtesco."Hinchliffe said the ad was created "organically" and not as part of any obligation to market the products.The ASA said: "Whilst that text may have given some indication to consumers that Ms Hinchliffe had been involved in designing the bowls, it was not explicitly made clear, and we considered that it was also not clear that she received royalties from their sale."We also understood that the ad was similar in style to non-ad content created by Sophie Hinchliffe who, as a home cleaning influencer, often shared lifestyle tips on Instagram."In