“We have found that members of the Kardashian/Jenner family are engaged in deceptive marketing campaigns for various companies by routinely creating and publishing sponsored social media posts for such companies without clearly and conspicuously disclosing that they are paid representatives of those companies or that the posts are advertisements”, the organization wrote in an August 17 letter addressed to Kris Jenner and lawyer Michael Kump.
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The Kardashian family is known for over-sharing, but a consumer watchdog group alleges that Kim & Co. have crossed a line with some of their social media posts.
“Since no one in this group is revered as a “do-gooder”-they are reality TV stars-I would not expect their fans to be outraged or even care”, says Glenn Selig, a crisis management expert who’s the founder and chief strategist at national PR firm The Publicity Agency”.
Truth in Advertising examined around 500 posts on each of the Kardashian sisters’ Instagram accounts and found more than 100 posts in each account that failed to properly disclose the posts were paid ads.
It’s given the family a week to take those posts down, or else it’ll ask the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation.
The five sisters have amassed more than 316 million Instagram followers combined.
“Kylie had the most problem posts”. The post is for the product Sugar Bear Hair, which is promoted on several of the sister’s Instagram pages.
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FCC regulations require journalists, celebrities and other media personalities to disclose their relationship with companies if they are reimbursed for a review or endorsement. “Kim took second”, it stated in a blog post Monday. “We believe consumers put stock in endorsements and we want to make sure they are not being deceived”.
