A fifth of advertising complaints last year related to ads by social media influencers.
The Advertising Standards Authority has released its annual report for 2023 showing that it received 1,402 complaints concerning 1,134 advertisements last year.
The report shows that 279 of the complaints concerned advertisements from social media influencers, with 34% of these received after the launch of Joint Guidance on Influencer Marketing with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) in October 2023.
A social media influencer complaints reporting form was launched in November 2023, and it was used to submit 903 notifications about content by some 300 social media influencers to year end.
Of the notifications received, the biggest number referenced 'missing label / hashtag', followed by ‘label / hashtag not visible or not at the start of content’ and ‘incorrect label / hashtag’.
The overall number of complaints received last year at 1,402, represented an increase of 18% when compared to 2022.
According to the report, 68% of complaints made in 2023 were on the basis that an advertisement was misleading, while 8% were made on the basis that an advertisement was offensive.
Digital media gave rise to the highest number of complaints, representing over half of all complaints, while broadcasting media (TV and radio combined) totalled 26%, and outdoor media amounted to 4%.
"During 2023, we partnered with key organisations, including Coimisiún na Meán, to seamlessly progress our partnership agenda with the new broadcast and online media regulator, focusing on plans for a Memorandum of Understanding and joint projects next year, " said Chief Executive of the Advertising Standards Authority Orla Twomey.
"Additionally, we contributed to the State-led Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce regarding the use of the phrase 'unlimited’ in advertising," she added.
"Going forward, we will also be streamlining our complaints management operations to enable us distribute our resources across all areas of our service proposition so that our contribution to maintain high advertising standards can be maintained," Ms Twomey said.
