Ethical Behaviour and Policy in Relation to Product Endorsement

       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...

Gimmick Products Used for Beauty, Body Image, and Weight Loss

       With Instagram celebrities starting their own companies, and with more and more business adapting their marketing strategies to employ social media, it's not really that surprising that there are going to be a couple of products out there that are not so genuine. Combine that with the female perception that their physical appearance has to be flawless and continually improved or else they risk a life of unhappiness, and you get the gimmick products of the beauty world. A gimmick product is one that is primarily designed to attract attention, but with no substantial value. These products will offer something that's desirable to audiences, such as a hair product that will cause your hair length to triple in a week. As long hair is seen as a desirable trait in women, those who want to grow out their hair may fall prey to the marketing trap. Of course, these product claims are completely falsified and have no scientific evidence to support their claims.

Essentially, the gimmick product is a marketing ploy to trick unsuspecting, and naively trusting consumers to spend money on a useless pipe dream. It's bad enough seeing $80 vitamin supplements designed to make you lose 10 pounds in a week, but it's even worse when it's publicly endorsed by celebrities who should really know better. The problem is, they do know better, but they're also using their appearance and widespread popularity to make obscene amounts of money doing very little work.

Fit Tea, BioLips, Mr. Blanc Professional Teeth Whitening, and Waist Trainers, are all examples of specific gimmick products that celebrities endorse on their personal social media*. Generally speaking, these products tend to have a great interest in the external appearance of the buyer; thus, they are seen as solutions to the body image problems by celebrity's followers on Instagram.


       While a number of celebrities actually use these products and believe that they work effectively, in reality, many of these spokespersons do not use these products and they promote them just to get paid for doing so.

Khloe Kardashian, showing off in a Waist Trainer 

We all know that women love to have long and thick hair, and when they see a beautiful picture of Becca Tilley holding “Sugar Bear Hair” vitamins in both of her hand palms, they probably think that they have found the optimal solution for their weak and damaged hair. Becca Tilley encourages her followers to take two Sugar Bear Hair vitamins by ensuring them that “they taste like scooby doo snacks”.

       Another cheap trick used by top influencers in the fitness world is calling "convenient timing". Often we see posts about specific fitness products, claiming to help lose weight in a very little amount of time. While it may seem too good to be true, there are plenty of photo testimonials proving the miracle product for weight loss. Except that there are a number of factors like lighting, time of day, time of last meal, clothing choice, and posture that can drastically change someones appearance in a matter of hours.

Specific Product Endorsements by Celebrities

Besides the effort that celebrities put into their professional careers nowadays, they also engage in supplementary projects that allow them to pursue their passions as a business endeavour, since their social status enables them to become the representative of their own brand. Most female celebrities undertake projects that involve fashion, beauty, or cosmetic products given that female celebrities are consistently critiqued on their physical attractiveness. Seeing that female celebrities are financially capable of funding their projects, they can hire specialists that possess essential knowledge, skills, and competencies in order to design, produce and manufacture beauty products. Some of these projects are currently well acknowledged and believed to be helpful and profitable in the customer market.

Top beauty influencer on Instagram, Huda Kattan, with approximately 17.5 million followers, created a career for herself by showing her followers how to enhance and reveal their beauty. The 32-year-old makeup artist owns a three-year-old product line named Huda Beauty. One of her most widely known products is a pair of false eyelashes that were launched in February 2013, which sold very fast in the Middle East, and have since been launched in the U.S. at large scale makeup distributors like Sephora. In her interviews, fashionista and entrepreneur Huda has said that the false lashes are all constructed by hand, and that the sales exceeded records on their first day of release. Huda launched her new liquid matte lipsticks in July 2016 after the release of her Huda Beauty Lip Contour Pencils in March 2016. The 16 liquid matte lipsticks come in one package and have the same shades as the lip contour pencils. The Dubai based makeup artist constantly posts pictures and short video tutorials on her Instagram account, showing how to apply the brand's products and teaching followers how to use them in order to get the desired makeup look.

Our second Instagram celebrity is known as Lilly Ghalichi, another beauty influencer with 2.5 million followers. Lilly is a businesswoman and uses her qualifications as an attorney and her role in the Shah’s of Sunset to her career advantage. In addition to Lilly’s co-ownership of the two well known fashion companies, Have Faith-Swimgerie and WantMyLook.com, she also plays a great role in designing for these two companies. Lilly has expanded her business ventures by developing her own product line, called ‘Ghalichi Glam’. Ghalichi Glam produces luxurious false eyelashes and voluptuous human hair extensions created and customized by Lilly, and are known as Lilly Lashes and Lilly Hair, respectively. Additionally, Ghalichi recently launched a new line of fashionable jewelry, that is known as the Lilly Ghalichi Collection by Avitan and Glampagne. Most of Lilly’s Instagram posts are pictures and videos about her and testimonials of her followers wearing her products.