If something on Instagram looks a little too picture perfect to be real, chances are, you’re looking at an advertisement.
Although advertising laws have cracked down on sponsored posts that don’t declare as much, a study by affiliate network Awin shows that 76 per cent of sponsored posts don’t disclose their commercial interests openly.
The most common hashtags for sponsored content are #ad with 12.8 million posts, followed by #sponsored at 3.3 million posts, #advertisement and #gifted at 1.8 million each and #affiliate with 744k posts.
However, 59 per cent of influencer posts hid these disclosure hashtags in the middle of a long post, 12 per cent hid them in the comments, and 24 per cent tuck them at the end.
“Disclosure is a really important part of being an influencer, not just because of the legal ramifications but also to have complete transparency with your followers,” said Kevin Edwards, Global Strategy Director at Awin.
“It was surprising to find that so many influencers were ‘hiding’ the disclosure of their advertisements from followers, and something we hope to combat this year.”
