Anna Boyne
In what has been deemed a landmark ruling, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) upheld complaints against Grace Beverley, founder and owner of sustainable activewear brand TALA.
The 51 complaints submitted to the ASA concerned two Instagram reels and four TikTok videos posted on Beverley’s personal social media accounts in late October 2023.
TALA told the ASA that Beverley was “widely synonymous with the business and its branding”.
Yet on 22 May, the ASA ruled that all six posts had violated their guidelines and were not obviously identifiable as marketing communications.
THE RESPONSE AND RULING
TALA argued that Beverley’s language demonstrates a clear commercial relationship between her and Beverley, who frequents the business. Bly speaks in the first person and discusses production and design elements in depth, which a consumer would be unable to do.
She said: “I wanted to make a bomber” and “I wanted to do another colour because we aced the fit so well.”
TALA also said upholding the complaints would lead consumers to believe Beverley was “an arm’s length influencer who had no commercial interest in the business and was merely promoting goods because she was being paid to do so.”
The ASA justified their ruling, saying that the posts were several minutes long and first-person references were made part-way through. This would require Instagram and TikTok users to actively engage with the post in order to pick up on these references.
“Many of the platform’s users would not have already known Grace was the founder and director”
Furthermore, the ‘For You Page’ function on TikTok means many of the platform’s users would not have already known Grace was the founder and director.
Going forward, both TALA and Beverly were advised to ensure that future ads were identifiable as marketing communications and clarified the commercial intent. This includes identifying ‘#ad’ under posts on Beverley’s personal accounts.
Notably, since the ruling, Beverley has not posted videos in the same style promoting new TALA products and, thus, has not been obliged to include these identifiers.
@aliceisgratified Today was a landmark and precedent-setting day for Influencer-led business marketing disclosure #asa #addisclosure #influencermarketing #influencerindustry #creatorcommunity ♬ original sound – Alice – Creator Marketing
A LANDMARK DAY FOR INFLUENCER DISCLOSURE
Alice Bull, founder of a content and creator marketing agency, brought significant attention to Beverly’s social media after posting a video on TikTok in November 2023 criticising Beverly’s violations of UK advertising laws.
The video received a huge response, which led to TALA threatening Bull with a defamation lawsuit.
Reacting on TikTok to the ASA ruling, Bull said it was a “landmark day for influencer disclosure.”
“The reason I made that video was to highlight how many influencer-led business owners are using their personal social media accounts to advertise business products without disclosing them as commercial communications to their audiences.
“That’s against UK advertising law,” she said.
Bull also disputed accusations that she was bringing other women down. She said: “I love women. I believe in the power of women. I want women to succeed. I exclusively work with women out of choice.”
“There is a 30 per cent influencer pay gap between women and men”
She cited that 77 per cent of influencers are women. Even though they dominate the influencer industry, there is a 30 per cent influencer pay gap between women and men.
Bull concluded her TikTok post by saying, “We will not succeed in this industry if it is not professionalised.”
RULING BACKLASH
Beverley herself told Marketing Week: “I am respectful of the ASA’s work and acknowledge their recent decision regarding my social media posts discussing Tala, a business I founded.”
“I want to continue encouraging conversation, clarity and transparency on how business owners across industries can naturally talk about their own work online in a way that distinctly differentiates from sponsored content.”
“many other globally known founders with audiences had not been singled out—including himself”
Caspar Lee, a creator who rose to fame on YouTube and co-founded the influencer agency Influencer, posted on LinkedIn criticising the ruling.
His post said: “If you’re going come down on Grace Beverley for promoting her own company, you better also look into Richard Branson, Ben Francis, Ben Jeffries, Victoria Beckham and actually every other founder with an audience on social media who dares to talk about something they’ve created without sticking AD on it, making it look like a sponsored post.”
He pointed out double standards, noting that many other globally known founders with audiences had not been singled out—including himself. He argued that sticking “AD” on anything about their businesses would make the post appear sponsored.
He also suggested the ASA had targeted Beverley as a “certain type of creator.”
The ASA ruling against TALA shows an attempt to keep up with the fast-growing influencer industry and the world of social media consumerism. Miles Lockwood, the ASA’s director of complaints and investigations, described the case as “precedent-setting.”
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Featured image courtesy of LyfeFuel on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.
