Have you taken the bait on the jersey, barrel leg pants yet? If you’re a midlife woman with an Instagram account, they’re hard to escape. “These sell-out Uniqlo trousers have Instagram in a chokehold,” screamed a headline in Grazia last week. So #obsessed are influencers with these pants, it’s taking all my willpower to resist.
These pants are just the latest and the merry-go-round of products being flogged by influencers, filling your feed and draining your wallet. Scroll for five minutes and you’ll see it: the must-have mascara, the indispensable boiling water kitchen tap, the luxury hotel stay.
Social media content has become one long ad break – though it’s not always clear that “advertainment” is what you’re watching. What seems like harmless scrolling is actually a constant stoking of your impulse to spend. This is creating a cycle of swipe-shop-regret, research shows, eating up not just your time but your money, too.
Purchase regret
Two-thirds of people who follow influencers have purchased a product as a result of them talking about it, says Laurie O’Keeffe, head of investigations in the enforcement division of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).
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“Influencer content can significantly shape consumer opinions and purchasing behaviours online,” says O’Keeffe.
With two out of three of us having bought something an influencer has recommended, the first step to girding your wallet is being able to spot that you are being influenced. But not all of us can, research shows.
Only one-in-10 consumers say they “trust” influencers – and we’re right to be cautious when someone is nudging us to spend. Despite the hours we spend watching their photos and videos on Instagram or TikTok, people in Ireland have difficulty recognising when this is happening.
Almost two-thirds of us said we “don’t follow influencers”, according to the CCPC research. We prefer to regard the people we follow as “interactive celebrities” or “people of interest” – that’s not the same thing, we say.
“Irish consumers say ‘other people follow influencers, but I follow people that interest me, and I trust the people I follow’ – so consumers are much more vulnerable to influencer marketing than they realise,” says O’Keeffe.
It’s “easy” to identify influencer marketing, eight-in-10 Irish consumers say – the CCPC’s in-depth focus groups however tell another story. Several influencer marketing examples shown to consumers caused them confusion.
We are overconfident in our ability to recognise when posts by influencers are in fact marketing, says the CCPC. So we may be more vulnerable to misleading marketing than we think.
An influencer is someone with the power to affect your opinion or purchasing decisions, and who receives a benefit for doing so.
“It’s really important that we are aware we are being advertised to,” says O’Keeffe. That’s especially the case as a high proportion of the things we buy as a result of influencing leaves us feeling deceived.
Of the two-thirds of us who follow influencers who have purchased a product as a result of them talking about it, one-in-four of us subsequently felt misled about the product, says O’Keeffe.
That’s a lot of purchase regret right there.
Sneaky sales
You’d know if you were in a furniture showroom, right? There would be sofas, side tables and kitchens with prices on them. Watch a ‘house tour’ video of one of your favourite personalities and things can be a bit more opaque. They rave about their branded coffee machine, offer a discount code for their rug and include a helpful link to where you can get floor tiles just like theirs.
A sneak peak inside their kitchen is hard to resist, but when they’re receiving a benefit from recommending these wares, they must say so.
Half of all commercial content on social media is not labelled, according to the CCPC’s research, says O’Keeffe. Some 97 per cent of influencers post commercial content, but only one in five systematically label it as such, according to separate EU research conducted at the end of 2023, she says.
“Influencers have to label commercial content they are posting,” says O’Keeffe. Her job is to investigate and prosecute the TikTokkers and Instagrammers who don’t. They are in breach of consumer protection laws.
Knowing the influencer is being paid in money or in kind to give the glowing review can help you make a more informed choice.
“There is no doubt that some of the content being published is just sneaky advertising and there is a lack of honesty and transparency,” says Orla Twomey, chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI).
Influencers must always clearly and prominently label their reels and stories according to ASAI guidance published in conjunction with the CCPC in 2023.
Followers should expect to see either #Ad, “Paid partnership”, #Gifted, or the Irish language equivalent, on all advertising posts. This means an influencer is compliant with their legal obligations, and you know when you are being advertised to.
Too often, influencers muddy the waters however.
“We are seeing influencers use #AD, but with a space before the ‘D’, so it’s not immediately apparent,” says Twomey.
“Or they will bury #AD in a whole load of other hashtags.”
“In a video, they may put the label in white text on a light background, so you have to play detective to figure it out,” she says.
#AD is supposed to be the first thing you see on commercial content.
#Gifted should only be used when the influencer has received an unsolicited product or service, and the brand has not directly influenced the post, according to the guidelines.
All other hashtags must only be used in addition – and following – #Ad or #Gifted. These include #Collaboration, #BrandAmbassador, #PRinvite and #OwnBrand.
“Some will use words like ‘Collab’, ‘SP’ [sponsored], or ‘BA’ [brand ambassador] as an indication that it’s an ad, but these are not proven disclosures,” says Twomey.
“If you’re a consumer and you see ‘collab’, you can be pretty sure it’s an ad,” she says.
The rules apply to social media influencers advertising their own brands or reviewing things such as a gifted meal or a hotel stay for example.
The rules also apply to sponsorships, being a brand ambassador, discount codes, competitions with gifted prizes as well as content about free products, services, trips, event invitations or experiences.
If you benefit from mentioning a brand on your social media channels, the content is commercial content and this must be obvious to your followers, says the ASAI.
“Advertising products is a valid thing to do, but you have to tell people,” says Twomey.
“I would have a question mark about anyone who consistently doesn’t disclose – that’s not a mistake, it’s on purpose.”
Look out for labelling. And if you feel an influencer isn’t being transparent, you can make an anonymous complaint to the ASAI.
Rugby player Brian O’Driscoll, chef Donal Skehan, fitness coach Caroline O’Mahony and beauty influencer Suzanne Jackson have all been served with CCPC compliance notices for failing to disclose the commercial nature of some of their posts on Instagram.
With over two million followers between them, that’s a lot of influence.
‘Finfluencers’
It’s not just influencers’ endless and sometimes camouflaged peddling of products that can wreck your finances, their advice can cost you too.
A ‘finfluencer’ is a someone who, because of their popularity or cultural status, can influence your financial decision-making through promotions or recommendations on social media.
Young people are especially vulnerable, according to new research from the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) published this week.
“Some 34 per cent of those surveyed use social media to learn about money with TikTok being the dominant platform (72 per cent),” says Karl Cronin, manager of North Connacht and Ulster Mabs.
“We believe there is a risk of misinformation when people use social media for debt advice.”
He acknowledges the important role of social media as a source of information, but consumers must ensure they are getting it from trusted sources, he says.
From this year, finfluencers in the UK face strict regulation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) there. It treats unauthorised promotion of financial products as a criminal offence. Finfluencers must be authorised, and the brands they work with will be held responsible for influencer content too.
The new rules are already starting to bite.
Last month, seven social media influencers were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London for their role in the promotion of an unauthorised foreign exchange trading scheme.
Former The Only Way is Essex reality TV star Lauren Goodger, who has a million followers on Instagram, was fined £3,750 and ordered to pay costs of £5,778.18 on pleading guilty to issuing unauthorised financial promotions.
Former Love Island participants Chris Biggs (160,000 followers) and Rebecca Gormley (330,000 followers) were also fined and ordered to pay costs.
These influencers betrayed the trust of those who followed them, said the FCA.
“We’ll continue to go after those who put the financial wellbeing of their followers at risk,” it said.
“We would welcome similar protections here in Ireland to protect consumers and their finances,” says Cronin of Mabs.
Kim Kardashian agreed to pay €1.3 million to settle charges with the US securities regulator for promoting a cryptocurrency on her Instagram – without revealing she was paid $250,000 to do so.
When celebrities or influencers endorse investment opportunities, it doesn’t mean they are right for you or that they are even legitimate, California’s department of financial protection and innovation warned.
Cynicism
When it comes to being influenced by social media, maintaining a healthy cynicism can curb your impulse to spend.
We’re all familiar with the sales tropes – the video where the influencer just decided to ‘jump on here’ and tell us about the yoga leggings/mascara/fake tan they are ‘obsessed with’, and that ‘everyone has been asking me about’.
Except they are likely to be obsessed with a completely different mascara next week, leaving us feeling pretty foolish for buying the first one.
“We don’t like it when the wool is being pulled over our eyes,” says Orla Twomey.
“If you’ve tried every mascara on the market and they are all your favourite, something’s not quite true,” says Twomey.
Promoting something different every day, or several things every day isn’t sustainable for your audience.
“Those people are short-sighted and will have short careers as influencers I would imagine because there is no longevity there.”
She suggests a healthy cynicism, and taking a pause before you buy.
“If you are happy that they are being authentic about what they are promoting, that’s one thing, but if someone is consistently promoting products, question it – are they doing it because they genuinely like the product or because they are being paid to do it and choosing not to disclose.”
