PremiumNEW DELHI : A day after Virat Kohli's social media post praising the Lovely Professional University (LPU) saying that 10% of Indian sportspersons in the Tokyo Olympics squad are from the university created a stir for not using paid-partnership tag and violating ASCI's influencer marketing guidelines, Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez has posted a picture of herself holding the shampoo and conditioner of haircare brand Tresmme India without any disclosure.
Fernandez has been promoting the Hindustan Unilever (HUL) haircare brand since 2016 as its brand ambassador. Similarly, Kartik Aaryan, who has over 20 million Instagram followers, did not use paid-partnership tag or disclosure for branded posts for Engage deodorant and PepsiCo India owned snack brand Doritos.
Emails sent to HUL and PepsiCo India remained unanswered.
The internet has many examples of big celebrities, with millions of followers across social media platforms, getting away without following ASCI’s new norms that came into effect from 14 June. Actor Jahnvi Kapoor, for instance, posted about Nykaa Hot Pink Sale, while Akshay Kumar shared biotech firm Mylabs's ad for self testing covid kit but did not flag it as collaboration/ad.
Celebrities did use promotional hashtags and tagged official social media handle of the respective brands but failed to put up disclosures as mandated by ASCI's new guidelines.
Executives working for some of these brands argue that the ASCI guidelines can only be applied to one-time partnership and not for influencers who have been official brand ambassadors. But ASCI does not agree. “Principally, if an influencer has a material connection with the advertiser and posts about that brand on the personal handle then disclosure label is required," said Manisha Kapoor, secretary general, ASCI.
Violations are happening in one-time promotions as well with celebrities posting about brands which they don’t officially endorse. Fatima Sana Shaikh posted about hair grooming tool Dyson, without any disclosure, which seemed like a one-time promotion.
“If any influencer makes a post where there is no material connection with the advertiser, a disclosure label is not required. However, if there is any material connection (paid or free samples of products/barters, etc) between the celebrity and the advertiser, then the disclosure label is required," said ASCI’s Kapoor.
The regulator said that they will write to both the advertiser and influencer and an explanation will be sought in such cases. “In the absence of a suitable explanation, the consumer complaints council may give a recommendation against that ad. If the advertiser continues to be in violation, such cases may be escalated to governmental sector regulators for further action," said Kapoor.
Advertising experts noted that since guidelines are new it will take a while to gain wider awareness and better compliance, especially among influencers. However, the onus is on big brands to ensure compliance by asking influencers to use disclosures.
"It may be difficult to comment about specific cases, but in general, if brands make it clear to their influencers—be they celebrities or just regular influencers—that they must follow the guidelines, then compliance will happen. Large brands and big influencers will have to lead by example," said Lloyd Mathias, business strategist and the former marketing head of HP Asia-Pacific.
Jitender Dabas, chief operating officer and chief strategy officer, McCann WorldGroup India, said that since influencers as a marketing tool is fairly new and so are the guidelines. Therefore, everything is nebulous and continuously evolving.
“I suppose as things get clearer and more crystallized it will be easier for everyone to follow. We will see less of such violations in the future. These are teething troubles more than anything else," he added.
Vijay Subramaniam, group chief executive officer and co-founder at Collective Artists Network, a talent management company argued that compliance also depends on the ecosystem of the celebrities which includes the manager and the agencies.
"... the agents should also know what are the guidelines are and not just the talent (celebrities). The overall ecosystem should try and get a hang of it. Moreover, like any new regulation it would take time to come into effect. In a few months, I think people should abide by it," he added.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!