Ikonic Professional - Ikonic hairstyling tools

Recommendation: Upheld | Medium: Suo Motu - NAMS (Reech)

In the absence of required action on or before the prescribed due date, Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) considered this complaint exparte. Advertisement shows an Influencer promoting a hairstyle machine brand. The advertisement carries a disclosure label ‘#collab’ in the advertisement. However this disclosure label is inserted at the end of the description in the advertisement and is buried in a group of hashtags. It is not stated upfront and hence could be missed by an average viewer. The disclosure label would not be visible to an average consumer when viewed from a mobile phone and the viewer would need to scroll down to view the same. The advertisement does not mention the disclosure label as "#Collaboration" which is a permitted disclosure label as per ASCI’s Influencer Guidelines. This advertisement is in contravention of contravention of Clause 1, 1.2 (a, c) and 1.3 (a) of ASCI Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media. Complaint was Upheld.