According to the new guidelines, ‘if the content is controlled by the marketer, not the vlogger, and is written in exchange for payment (monetary payment or free items) then it is an advertisement feature and must be labelled as such’.
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The ASA is growing increasingly concerned that many YouTube viewers believe their favourite vloggers are talking about a product just because they like it not because they are being paid, something that would break advertising laws.
The Committee of Advertising Practice (Cap) created the rules as a response to a landmark ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) last year, relating to a series of videos by UK vloggers which promoted the “Oreo” brand. The Guardian adds that the ASA will also be reaching out to PR firms, with which it does not usually interact.
The guidelines include some leniency, however – vloggers who are sent free items by brands and where there is absolutely no editorial or content control by said brand can continue to feature those products natively without violating the guidelines.
Now, vloggers will have to make it clear that they are being paid to promote the product. However if they were offered some compensation or financial incentive to give the product a positive review, viewers would need to be made aware of that arrangement.
“The advertising rules, which apply across media including online and to social media channels, state that ads must be obviously identifiable as such”, the documents reads.
CAP and ASA’s work forms part of a five-year strategy to focus on being more proactive in identifying and tackling potential problems as well as raising awareness and understanding of the advertising rules.
“Wherever ads appear we should be confident we can trust what an advertiser says; it’s simply not fair if we’re being advertised to and are not made aware of that fact”, said Shahriar Coupal, director of the Committees of Advertising Practice.
Editor of online vlogger magazine TenEighty.com Alex Brinnand says vloggers will probably benefit from the clarifications.
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CAP’s infographic for vloggers, released today.
