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June 7, 2021

Summary: ASCI final Guidelines for “Influencer Advertising on Digital Media”

Author: Sunidhi Bansal

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), has now released its final guidelines for “Influencer advertising on digital media”. Earlier in February, 2021, ASCI released the draft guidelines for “Influencer advertising on digital media” for stakeholder consultation and based on the feedback received, has now released the final guidelines.

The guidelines define an influencer as someone who has access to an audience and the power to affect their audiences’ purchasing decisions or opinions about a product or brand, because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with their audience. The final Guidelines has also added the definition for virtual influencer as, “…fictional computer generated ‘people’ or avatars who have the realistic characteristics, features and personalities of humans, and behave in a similar manner as influencers.”   

As per the guidelines all advertisements published by social media influencers or their representatives, on influencers’ accounts must carry a disclosure label that clearly identifies it as an advertisement. This disclosure is required if there is a material connection between the advertiser and the influencer. The material connection is not limited to monetary compensation but also includes other compensations, free gifts with or without any condition. Disclosures are required even if the evaluations are unbiased or fully originated from the Influencer, as long as there exists a material connection between Advertiser and Influencer.

Under the guidelines the disclosure should be upfront and prominent so that it is not missed by an average consumer. Unlike the earlier draft guidelines for stakeholder consultation, which restricted disclosure label options strictly to five hashtags, #ad, #collab, #promo, #sponsored  and #partnership. The final guidelines provides a list of disclosure label options to choose from which includes, Advertisement, Ad, Sponsored, Collaboration, Partnership, Employee, Free gift.

Earlier, the draft guidelines provided that in the case of a brand using a virtual influencer, the onus of the disclosure is upon the advertiser. However, the final guidelines provide that a virtual influencer must additionally disclose to consumers that they are not interacting with a real human being. The final guidelines provide that the responsibility of disclosure of material connection and also of the content of Advertisement is upon the Advertiser, and also upon the Influencer. The final guidelines do not have any separate liability in case of virtual influencer with respect to disclosure of material connection.

The final guidelines are accessible here: https://asci.social/guidelines. The guidelines will be applicable to all promotional posts published on or after June 14, 2021.

Disclaimer: Views, opinions, interpretations are solely those of the author, not of the firm (ALG India Law Offices LLP) nor reflective thereof. Author submissions are not checked for plagiarism or any other aspect before being posted.

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