Anna Heinrich, a Bachelor Australia winner with 382,00 followers on Instagram, has been found to have fallen short of new recommended advertising transparency standards.
One of her posts includes an image of Heinrich in a green dress, and the text "Turning my apartment into a Runway [green heart emoji] Then back to my PJs I go! Wearing: @runawaythelabel".
Ad Standards: “A reminder to advertisers and influencers that commercial arrangements with brand owners must be clearly disclosed in a way that can be easily understood by every consumer.”
The standards body recommends that obvious hashtags be used, such as #Ad or #PaidPartnership, rather than just tagging the advertiser or thanking them in the post.
She is the first social media influencer to be pinged with the updated rules under Section 2.7 of the AANA Code of Ethics.
This is designed help audiences distinguish paid content from user-generated content and apply to both timeline posts and temporary content such as Instagram stories.
Ad Standards: "The Panel considered that while some followers of the influencer may be able to recognise that this post is most likely advertising, there was nothing in the wording of the post and no hashtags which clearly demonstrated that this is advertising material.
"The Panel considered that tagging the brand on its own was not sufficient to clearly and obviously show that there was an arrangement between the brand and influencer.:
Ad Standards noted: "The advertiser has not provided a response to the Panel's determination."
The post from Anna Heinrich now includes a note: "Paid partnership with runawaythelabel."
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