In view of the growing collaboration between social media influencers and companies for the advertisement of the latter's products, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Friday came up with a set of guidelines for advertising in the said domain. Underlining that it is ‘critical' that consumers be able to distinguish when something is being promoted with an intention to influence their opinion or behaviour for an immediate or eventual commercial gain, the self-regulatory voluntary organization listed down the said guidelines.
ASCI issues guidelines for social media influencers' advertising in social media
Before listing down the guidelines, ASCI vividly stated in simple terms the meaning of ‘Material Connect', which drives the sale and purchase on social media. “A material connection is any connection between an advertiser and influencer that may affect the weight or credibility of the representation made by the influencer. A material connection could include but is not limited to benefits and incentives, such as monetary or other compensation, free products with or without any conditions attached including those received unsolicited, discounts, gifts, contest and sweepstakes entries, trips or hotel stays, media barters, coverage, awards or any family or employment relationship, etc,” it explained.
It then went on to list down the guidelines, which are as follows:
All advertisements published by social media influencers or their representatives, on such influencers' accounts must carry a disclosure label that clearly identifies it as an advertisement.
- The said disclosure should not be placed in a manner that is hard to read, and should not be placed on an ABOUT ME or profile page, or bios, at the end of posts or videos, in a group of hashtags or links or anywhere that requires a person to click MORE or, as chances are that they would be missed.
- If the advertisement is only a picture or video post without accompanying text (such as Instagram stories or Snapchat), the discloser label needs to be superimposed over the picture/video and it should be ensured that the average consumer is able to see it clearly.
- For videos that last 15 seconds or lesser, the disclosure label must stay for a minimum of 3 seconds while for videos that are 2 minutes or longer, the disclosure label must stay for the entire duration of the section in which the promoted brand or its features, benefits etc are mentioned. Whereas, for videos longer than 15 seconds, but less than 2 minutes, the D disclosure label should stay for 1/3rd the length of the video.
- In live streams, the disclosure label should be announced at the beginning and the end of the broadcast. If the post continues to be visible after the live stream is over, appropriate disclosure must be added to the text/ caption. If the advertisement is only a picture or video post without accompanying text (such as Instagram stories or Snapchat), the discloser label needs to be superimposed over the picture/video and it should be ensured that the average consumer is able to see it clearly.
- In the case of audio media, the disclosure must be clearly announced at the beginning and at the end of the audio, and before and after every break that is taken in between.
The disclosure must be made in a manner that is well understood by an average consumer
- The list of disclosure labels permitted- Advertisement, Ad, Sponsored Collaboration, Partnership, Employee and Free gift.
- The disclosure should be in English OR in the language of the advertisement itself in a way that is easy for an average consumer to understand.
The disclosure must be made in a manner that is well understood by an average consumer
- A virtual influencer must additionally disclose to consumers that they are not interacting 1 with a real human being. This disclosure must be upfront and prominent.
- Responsibility of disclosure of material connection and also of the content of Advertisement is upon the Advertiser for whose product or service the advertisement is, and also upon the Influencer. For clarity, where Advertiser has a material connection with the Influencer, Advertiser's responsibility will be to ensure that the posted Influencer advertisement is in line with the ASCI code and its Guidelines.
(Credit-ASCI)
