…Researched and contributed by Jack Sylva.
Love Island star and influencer Tasha Ghouri has been reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for failing to properly label a social media post as an advert.
Ghouri had been paid by EMI to feature the Elton John and Britney Spears track “Hold Me Closer” in the TikTok ad, but the ASA ruled that the #soundad hashtag did not sufficiently identify the post as an ad she had been paid for.
The authority told both EMI and Ghouri to ensure future posts were obviously labelled as marketing communications and included clear and prominent identifiers such as “#ad”.
In her response to the complaint, Ghouri argued that the caption on the post clearly stated “soundad” in the first line, and thought that had adequately identified the track as an advert.
EMI said it had followed its usual practice by requesting the display of “#soundad” or “#musicad” and believed that had been sufficient to publicise its commercial relationship with Ghouri.
However, the ASA disagreed with both parties and upheld the complaint against the video, which was posted in early November.
Ghouri, who has over 800,000 followers and more than 20 million likes on TikTok, had been the first deaf contestant to appear on Love Island.
She has since become a prolific influencer, ambassador and podcaster.
The TikTok video, featuring the Elton John and Britney Spears duet, was found to be inadequately identified as an ad, and the hashtag was not prominent enough.
The ASA ruling stated that the ad should not be used again in its present form.