Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the self-regulatory body for the Irish marketing communications industry, received 1,402 written complaints last year, up 18 per cent on the year before, with a fifth of the complaints made about social media influencers.
The total number of complaints related to 1,134 advertisements, with 59 of them found to be in breach of the authority’s code of standards, the same number as the year before, according to its annual report.
As in previous years, the main reason advertisements were found to be in breach of the code was because they were considered to be misleading. Health and beauty was the sector that gave rise to the biggest number of complaints, followed by the leisure sector.
About 20 per cent, or 279, of all complaints received in 2023 related to advertisements by social media influencers, with about a third of these received after ASA’s launch of joint guidance on influencer marketing with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) in October 2023. The proportion of complaints that were about influencers rose from just 7 per cent in 2022.
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The surge follows the introduction by ASA, shortly after its new guidance was issued, of an anonymous complaints reporting form for concerns about influencer content. As a result of this push, it received 903 “notifications” about possible issues involving 300 influencers from November 17th until the end of the year.
Among these notifications, 590 said the influencer had not included a label or hashtag indicating that the content was an advertisement, while a further 171 said the label or hashtag was not visible or not at the start of the content and 142 said the label or hashtag was incorrect.
“Ongoing promotion of the guidelines will continue into 2024 to educate influencers and brands on the correct disclosure of commercial content on social media, fostering trust in advertising for all and safeguarding consumers from advertising that is harmful, misleading or offensive,” said ASA chief executive Orla Twomey.
The ASA was previously known as the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland until a rebrand in March. During 2023 its work with other organisations included engagement with the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland to discuss the role of this new body when it was established.
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