A Sainsbury’s advert has been banned for breaking UK advertising rules after an influencer post was held to have been a marketing communication for infant formula.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which upheld the complaint, also ruled that the Instagram post by influencer Kayleigh Johnson was not obviously identifiable as an advert.
Johnson’s post first appeared in June this year, featuring a box with the question: “Are you going to breastfeed? If not what formula will you use?”.
The advertising or marketing of infant formula is entirely prohibited under the UK Advertising Code.
In the text accompanying the image, the social media personality wrote that she plans to try breastfeeding with her new child but isn’t putting any pressure on the situation, adding that she was “not here for any judgement or ‘breast is best’ comments. Fed is fed, end of.”
She then linked directly to Sainsbury’s page for the infant formula she used with her first child.
Following complaints, Sainsbury’s took immediate action to remove the influencer ad. The retailer said that, while it did not have any involvement in the content, it accepted joint responsibility for the post.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest marketing news sent straight to your inbox each morning
While Sainsbury’s said it could not block influencers from posting products link from a technical perspective, it was working with an affiliate platform CJ, whose terms stated that users must comply with all relevant UK legislation.
Johnson, who was working with an affiliate network named Stylink, said she was not aware that it was prohibited to market infant formula. If she had been, she would not have generated the affiliate link.
Sainsbury’s said it was the network’s responsibility to ensure its users adhere to UK advertising rules. In response, Stylink said it considered it to be the retailers’ and networks’ responsibility to assure affiliates could not create links to prohibited products.
Following the complaints, Sainsbury’s has updated its terms and conditions to more clearly outline how their partners should ensure compliance. Failure to comply with these terms will lead to removal from Sainsbury’s affiliate programme.
In this case, however, the ad had been quickly removed and no commission had been earned.
Johnson accepted full responsibility for not using #ad or #aff to clearly identify the post as an advert, saying that she normally did and was not sure why she had not done so in this instance.
As such, no further action was taken beyond a warning to Stylink, reminding them of their contractual obligations. Sainsbury’s has released new terms and conditions for affiliate platforms, offering more specific guidance about the CAP Code and other relevant UK legislation.
