Influencer marketing has become a powerful tool for brands in recent years, growing to an estimated value of US$13.8 billion this year, up from US$9.7 billion in 2020, according to Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2021 Benchmark Report. But the industry is increasingly under scrutiny, due to the impact content can have on the mental health of young people, with many influencers criticised for misleading consumers about products and their appearance through the use of editing tools. A new law recentl
ecently passed in Norway aims to address this issue.
Norwegian Parliament, Storting, amended the Marketing Act to include a requirement for influencers to label any images that have been retouched in such a way that it “deviates from reality” in terms of body shape, size and skin.
“The advertiser and the person designing the advertisement must further ensure that the advertisement where a body’s shape, size or skin has been changed by retouching or other manipulation, shall be marked,” the amendment reads.
“The measure will hopefully make a useful and significant contribution to curbing the negative impact that such advertising has, especially on children and young people.”
Tim Hill, co-founder and CEO at social analytics platform Social Status, believes the move is a “decent band-aid to a very complex problem” that influencer marketing faces.
“We need to do things in the short-term and so I believe rules like this that mandate labelling on altered sponsored content increases transparency overall and that’s a good thing,” Hill told Inside Retail.
Policing influencers
However, because the Norwegian law is very specific, relating to body shape, size and skin, Hill holds some concerns about how it can be policed.
“Will it be algorithmic or human-reviewed? [This] relates more broadly to the mother of all challenges for social networks – moderation. Functionally, the Instagram feed is becoming quite cluttered with tags, labels and sub-features so the more visual complexity added may lead to a form of ‘banner-blindness’ in users too,” he said.
In February, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled against the use of filters that exaggerate a beauty product’s efficacy in social media adverts. The decision was made in response to the #filterdrop campaign, started by beauty activist Sasha Pallari, which called on influencers to state when a beauty filter has been used to promote skincare or cosmetics.
Since the ruling, the ASA has already identified a number of influencers, including Skinny Tan and Tanologist Tan, that have breached the rules.
Importance of authenticity
Hill doesn’t expect laws of this nature will have a significant impact on brands, as most are already striving to be authentic and relatable to consumers.
“From a brand and advertiser perspective, it would seem the majority of brands would be unwilling to work with influencers who need to label their content as altered or enhanced,” he said.
“For brands, one of the main reasons why they work with influencers or creators is to co-create more authentic content. Authenticity is the primary currency for brands on social media and altered content makes that currency worthless.”
However, he believes an education-based approach is needed to tackle the mental health impacts on young people as a result of content consumed on social media.
“As an industry, we need to do something about the negative effects that manipulated content has on social media users, especially teens and young adults,” he said.
“I believe the more difficult, long-term but more effective way to address this is through direct education programs for young people to help them understand the digital world they’re growing up in, the moment they create their first social media account.”