So now that you know about some of the gimmick products female celebrities endorse, and how often people fall for those gimmicks, how do you feel? Probably angry, probably betrayed, maybe even a little bit distrustful. You’d be right to feel that way! While these women are cashing in their millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of women across the U.S. are shelling out their own hard-earned cash on products that make false claims. In fact, women are twice as likely to buy celebrity-endorsed products than men (Kirkova, 2014).
Not only is it deceiving to endorse gimmick products, but more often than not, posters don’t even disclaim that the post is sponsored and paid for in the first place! On one end of the spectrum, it’s sneaky and illegitimate, but on the other end, this can be downright dangerous (Knoll and Matthes, 2017)!
Perhaps most notably, in 2015 Kim Kardashian posted yet another selfie of her holding up a bottle of Diclegis, a supplement for morning sickness, and spouting off praises for this miracle drug to her then 40 million followers. She even continued to say “And most importantly, it’s been studied and there’s no increased risk to the baby!” What Kim KW didn’t disclose, whether intentionally or not, was any of the side effects or medical risks of the pharmaceutical supplement, a MAJOR clear-cut requirement upheld by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) (Kroll, 2015). As a result of the severe violation of the crucial legal rules regarding how drugs may be marketed, the FDA sent a warning letter to the pharmaceutical company saying the post was “false or misleading in that it presents efficacy claims for Diclegis, but fails to communicate any risk information associated with its use and it omits material facts” (Kroll, 2015). Doctors and the FDA have statistically confirmed that there is no drug that comes without any medical side effects or risks, not to mention possible other drug interactions (FDA Testimony, 2001). This is a huge safety issue and luckily, the post was eventually edited and finally deleted.
Legally, advertising practices in the U.S. fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission. However the guidelines updated in May 2015 are merely that, guidelines (Wu, 2016). It’s a rough regulation system with no civil penalties involved and yet it has still been met with so much resistance. Ordinarily, all sponsored content is supposed to be marked clearly as such, but IG users don’t like to disclaim if a post is #sponsored or an #ad, because they feel that it makes their posts less organic*.
We can totally understand how disclaiming that your picture with a collection of twelve $55 tubes of lipstick (sent to you for free, along with $100,000 in cash) might make you seem less organic...
References
Kroll, D. (2015, August 11). FDA admonishes drug maker over Kim Kardashian instagram endorsement. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2015/08/11/fda-spanks-drug-maker-over-kim-kardashian-instagram-endorsement/#12dc5412b1b7
Testimony by John. M Taylor on Health Fraud. (2001, September 10). Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Testimony/ucm115204.htm
Wu, K. (2016).
YouTube Marketing: Legality of Sponsorship and Endorsements in Advertising. Journal
of Law, Business Ethics 22, 59-92.
Knoll, J. & Matthes, J. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. (2017). 45: 55. doi:10.1007/s11747-016-0503-8
Kirkova, D. (2014, May 30). Are you swayed by a celebrity? Women buy twice as many celebrity-endorsed products as men. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2641476/Susceptible-women-buy-twice-celebrity-endorsed-products-men.html
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