Another week another decision from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about whether a social media post is identifiable as a marketing communication.

This decision relates to a post on Instagram by Tanya Burr. Tanya is a YouTuber and actress. In April of this year, she posted a selfie of herself wearing a trench coat and Adidas trainers. The text said “I lived in this trench last Autumn and am very happy to be back in it for Spring” under the text was a clickable link labelled “OUTFIT LINKS” which linked through to Tanya Burr’s LTK shop page.

What are the relevant rules?

The CAP Code is a set of rules that non-broadcast advertisers are required to adhere to. The CAP Code applies to various types of advertising including social media advertising. The ASA is the advertising regulator and they enforce the CAP Code.

The ASA state that the majority of advertisers follow ASA rulings because if advertisers are seen to be ignoring rules that are designed to protect consumers, it can damage their reputation.

What did Adidas say?

Adidas UK Limited confirmed to the ASA that they had not contracted Ms Burr and hadn’t worked on paid campaigns. Adidas did however confirm that she used an affiliate link on Adidas products. Adidas said that they had “always required” creators to disclose paid content.

The coat

Braveheart International (trading as ALIGNE) had sold the trench coat which was shown in the advertisement. ALIGNE said that their guidelines say that creators should ensure the word “AD” was always visible. They didn’t have a paid partnership with Tanya but had gifted her the coat in October 2023 at her request.

What did Tanya Burr say?

Ms Burr confirmed that she would amend her advertising in line with the ASA rules and added that she wasn’t paid by Adidas or ALIGNE. She confirmed that she had purchased the trainers herself and was gifted the coat.

What did the ASA say?

The ASA said that the CAP code stated that marketing communications must be “obviously identifiable” as commercial content. The story contained an affiliate link and therefore must have been a marketing communication.

There had been a breach of the CAP Code and the ad must not appear again in the form investigated. Adidas, ALIGNE and Ms Burr must in the future ensure that ads are obviously identifiable as marketing communications.

Comment

This case is slightly different to previous decisions, and highlights that if an affiliate link is used it is irrelevant whether there is a commercial agreement with the manufacturer, the ASA will conclude that where “paid link” is used the advertisement must be clearly identifiable as an advert and the safest way to do this is by writing the words AD.