ASA Tackles Vloggers Misleading Advertising

The UK’s Advertising Standards Agency has asked popular YouTube vloggers Dan and Phil to remove an ad for Oreo cookies, after it was found to be misleading.

The ad in question featured the pair competing with each other to see how quickly they could lick the filling from some Oreos. The ASA found however that the ad didn’t really appear to be an ad, possibly misleading viewers into believing Dan and Phil didn’t actually receive compensation for the video.

The video was never actually removed in the end, due to the fact that Dan and Phil complied with requests from ASA by placing an annotation on the video that reads “This is a paid for advertisement” (see below).

“In this case because the ads were on online video channels that were usually non-promotional, the commercial intent should have been made clear before viewers clicked on the content”. – The ASA.

The incident has raised the issue of advertisers using YouTube personalities without actually making it very clear that such content is advertising. The ASA says that this is misleading viewers and could damage the trust they hold in their favourite YouTubers.

Source: The Independent