The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has set new rules that aim to ensure advertising, paid plugs and product placement will be clearly distinguishable from other content. The new rules focus heavily on influencers rather than other mediums such as radio and TV.
Essentially, the rules state that influencers should disclose a paid arrangement with a brand by using (for example) the hashtag #ad.
But Mumbrella has called the system 'woolly' given that it is widely open to interpretation and is at risk of causing confusion among advertisers and consumers. Mumbrella marketing and advertising editor Simon Canning explains:
"Across social media, and Instagram in particular, some influencers are being paid sizeable sums or offered goods in kind to promote brands, without necessarily disclosing to their followers that they are doing so… In attempting to address growing community concerns over the rise of stealth marketing, what the AANA has unveiled is a two-tiered system that is quite proscriptive about how bloggers, influencers and other users of emerging channels should identify advertising and a much looser set of guidelines for TV, print and radio."
The AANA has shared 18 examples of ways that ads might be placed across media, which aim to provide guidance on whether they should be labelled as ads or not. Throughout the 18 examples given, Canning said the AANA has largely avoided pinning down the need for advertisers to disclose their involvement in any "significantly overt manner" and therefore leaves the approach open to interpretation.
He concluded: "Far from being definitive, what the AANA has presented looks more like a work in progress and one that looks likely to fuel the debate, not settle it… As the new guidelines highlight time and again, 'care should be taken' not to camouflage advertising. But the new policy looks more like all care and no responsibility."
The AANA guidelines can be found here.
