GREENSBORO, N.C. – From Beyoncé to The Kardashians, Kandace Tucker loves following celebs on Instagram.
“It’s just really cool to get a peek into their lives,” she said.
All the while lusting over their dresses and shoes.
“I do, but I know I probably couldn’t afford them,” she said laughing.
The folks over at Truth in Advertising say famous people are getting paid big bucks for including some of those products in their pictures.
“There are estimates that some people on Instagram are being paid six figures for a single post,” said Executive Director Bonnie Patten.
The government says if a celebrity is paid to post something, they have to let you know. The best way to do that is simply putting #ad. That way you’re not mislead into thinking a famous person really likes a product and wants to recommend it on their own.
“That’s very different from a paid endorsement where they are being paid to say this is good. That might not be their open and honest opinion without that financial incentive,” Patten said.
But the watchdog group says it found over 100 IG posts where the Kardashians are pushing a product without disclosing it as an ad.
“One of the women might post a picture on their Instagram post, that looks just like a plain old Instagram post. And then you’ll find the duplicate image on a company’s website – which is obviously an ad,” Patten said. “If it’s an ad then the consumer needs to be able to tell it’s an ad. It needs to be transparent.”
The Kardashians responded to Truth in Advertising by updating several of their posts. And Truth and Advertising cautions a lot of celbs are having issues with social media ads. The group just focused on the Kardashians because the family has the largest social media following.
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