Description:
On the Elora Christmas Market’s social media page, the brand shared video posts from various influencers about their experiences at the brand’s holiday event. The brand was tagged in these posts by the respective influencers. No disclosure was made with regards to any type of material connection between the brand and said influencers.
Complaint:
The complainant alleged that these influencers were being paid as a result of their involvement in a marketing campaign and that this material connection was not disclosed in the advertisements.
Response:
Although Ad Standards requested a response from the brand advertiser, there was no response sent to Council.
Decision:
Council members noticed that there was a common theme throughout the posts. Each ad had similar promotional copy that talked about the details of the event, such as, everything you need to know, distance from Toronto, free entry, etc. Council members were of the view that this type of copy was an approach that an organic attendee of the event would not likely use, thereby creating a reasonable inference that this was a paid marketing campaign. In Council’s view, this implied they were all advertisements.
Given there was no disclosure in the ads about the relationship between the brand and the influencers, such as, “sponsored” or “paid partner”, for example, Council found there to be an omission of relevant information resulting in advertisements that were deceptive or misleading. This omission, Council found, also brought the legitimacy of the testimonials into question, creating doubt about their genuineness.
Council members held, by unanimous vote, that there was a violation of Clause 1(b) and Clause 7 of the Code.
Infraction:
Clause 1(b), Clause 7
