THE ADVERTISING STANDARDS Authority has upheld complaints against four advertisers for ads on social media accounts run by influencers, including Pippa O’Connor and Rosanna Davison.

The authority’s Complaints Council, which is responsible for adjudicating on complaints about advertisements, published its latest bulletin today. It upheld 16 out of 20 recent cases, four of which related to ads on influencers’ social media accounts.

Others related to ads run on mediums including email, radio, an online brochure, third-party website, and a company or advertisers’ own website or social media.

One of the cases was a story published on the social media account pipsy_pie, which belongs to well-known influencer and businesswoman Pippa O’Connor, for products from her beauty range POCO.

One image included the label ‘Own Brand’ and other images included the company tag, according to the bulletin. The complainant did not feel the story images had been identified correctly as advertising material because they did not include the the label #AD. The Complaints Council upheld the complaint. 

Another case that was upheld was an ad run for leisurewear for the brand Human Collective on Rosanna Davison’s account @rosanna_davison.

Advertising on the account featured the influencer showcasing leisurewear clothing for the Human Collective brand.

The complainant said it had not included the label #Ad and they believed the advertising was misleading because the influencer had not indicated their relationship with the brand.

The other two influencer accounts mentioned in the bulletin were @Twins_and_me_, run by Julie Haynes, for the brand Voduz Hair and siobh.ohagan, run by Siobhan O’Hagan, for The Self Improvement Project.

Other upheld complaints in the latest batch of decisions related to advertisements for the brands Superprof, Cresthaven Ltd, Vibes & Scribes, the Airport Driving School, Irish Buckfast, Ogel Beds, MyVehicle.ie, Beautysavers.ie and Richmond Marketing. 

All of the complaints and decisions are available on the Advertising Standards Authority’s website.

Commenting on the latest decisions, Advertising Standards Authority chief executive Orla Twomey said that “the primary mission of the Advertising Standards Authority is to protect consumers from advertising that is harmful, offensive, or misleading”.

“Our recent complaints bulletin emphasises our essential role in ensuring that advertising in Ireland is honest, decent, truthful, and compliant with the Code of Standards,” Twomey said.