The UK Committee of Advertising Practice has published official guidance for vloggers that take payment to promote products in their videos and on social media.
The move follows an Advertising Standards Authority investigation last year that found vloggers had misled viewers by failing to properly flag commercially-bought content.
CAP's guidance is straightforward: if you are paid to promote something and the advertiser controls the message then the content is an ad. All ads must be "obviously identifiable" as such.
This applies to a videos on sites such as YouTube and Twitch, as well as to any accompanying social media channel.
It also covers commercial breaks in vlogs and product placement, and sponsorship without control of the content.
The rule brings paid-for video content in line with other media
In effect, the rules issued by the Committee for Advertising Practice (CAP) advise YouTubers that they must make it clear, upfront, when they've been paid by a brand.
That could include the vlogger actually saying verbally that they have a commercial arrangement with the advertiser, or prominent text signposting (as part of the actual video, not just the text boxes you can overlay a YouTube video with) at the beginning of the video could state: "Sponsored by ...," or "commercial," or "Advert," for example. Otherwise, they risk breaking the advertising rules.
But there continue to be gray areas. For example: if a brand's PR team sends an item to a vlogger, but has no control about the video they produce, the CAP doesn't deem this to be applicable to the advertising code because, ultimately, the content is controlled by the publisher, not the advertiser.
The move follows an Advertising Standards Authority investigation last year that found vloggers had misled viewers by failing to properly flag commercially-bought content.
CAP's guidance is straightforward: if you are paid to promote something and the advertiser controls the message then the content is an ad. All ads must be "obviously identifiable" as such.
This applies to a videos on sites such as YouTube and Twitch, as well as to any accompanying social media channel.
It also covers commercial breaks in vlogs and product placement, and sponsorship without control of the content.
The rule brings paid-for video content in line with other media
In effect, the rules issued by the Committee for Advertising Practice (CAP) advise YouTubers that they must make it clear, upfront, when they've been paid by a brand.
That could include the vlogger actually saying verbally that they have a commercial arrangement with the advertiser, or prominent text signposting (as part of the actual video, not just the text boxes you can overlay a YouTube video with) at the beginning of the video could state: "Sponsored by ...," or "commercial," or "Advert," for example. Otherwise, they risk breaking the advertising rules.
But there continue to be gray areas. For example: if a brand's PR team sends an item to a vlogger, but has no control about the video they produce, the CAP doesn't deem this to be applicable to the advertising code because, ultimately, the content is controlled by the publisher, not the advertiser.
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