Former reality TV star Stephanie Davis warned over Instagram ads
Former CBB star Stephanie Davis has been warned she must clearly label ads on social media following a complaint about one of her Instagram posts.
It's after she shared a photo of some vitamins from lifestyle company Convits along with a promotion code. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled it wasn't clear that the post was an advert. Stephanie said her previous agency reviewed the post and she had now edited it to include "#ad". Convits said it tells all agencies it works with that social influencers must include relevant evidence in a post to show it was an advert. The ASA is the UK's independent regulator for advertising standards and its job is to make sure that people in the media stick to the rules. It received a complaint about whether Stephanie's Instagram post from August last year breached its code because it was not clearly identifiable as being an advert. The ASA understood that Convits sent the former Celebrity Big Brother star the vitamins - which she was expected to photograph and post on her account. Even though the post including the tag for the vitamin company and a discount offer, it was felt that "those elements did not indicate to users that the post was a marketing communication". "It was not obviously identifiable as a marketing communication and therefore [the ASA] concluded that it breached the code." Both Stephanie and the vitamins company have been told to ensure that all future adverts are clearly identifiable. The former Hollyoaks actress isn't the first to fall foul of advertising rules on social media though. In October 2017, former Geordie Shore star Marnie Simpson was the first to have a complaint upheld against her on Snapchat. At the time Guy Parker from the ASA told the BBC that "ads, wherever they appear, must be obviously identifiable as ads". Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat