In 2019 the South African Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) released a Social Media Code that serves to regulate the way influencers post, ensuring that consumers and influencers are all on the same page about transparency, accountability and best practice. The full code can be found on their website: http://arb.org.za/assets/appendix-k.pdf.
The code defines the three accepted hashtags you need to include if you share sponsored content “to ensure that consumers reasonably understand this to be a Paid Advertising as opposed to an Organic Social Media endorsement”:
#AD
#Advertisement
#Sponsored
Even if you’re not taking cash in return for sponsored content, but you have managed to strike up a barter deal where a brand gives you stock in exchange for posts, you need to disclose this as well:
Influencers are required to disclose if they were provided (permanently or on loan) with goods or services in return for media coverage (whether this is expressly stated or not). This helps reinforce ... influencer integrity while clearly allowing the consumer to make an informed opinion of the applicable content, product or service.
The code also protects influencers by requiring brands to provide you with a written agreement.
Marketers are required to have a written contract with any paid influencers that include the following information:
1. The details of the engagement/brief.
2. The remuneration (cash or cash equivalent), details and conditions of payment.
3. The obligation to publish only own content or to clearly disclose or credit the content creator, if and when the content is not self-created.
4. Mandatory disclosures and industry specific marketing regulations required by the marketer’s industry.
Number 4 relates to gambling- or alcohol-related content, for example, which has an additional set of standard advertising requirements imposed on it.
Influencer content must also comply with the standards of the Code of Advertising Practice, which means that if you make a false claim about how good a product is, you can’t protect yourself afterwards by saying, “It was just my own opinion”. If your claim cannot be substantiated with facts, don’t make the claim on your profile, no matter how truthful you may think it is.
If you want to check your draft post against the Code of Advertising Practice just to be sure, head over to the digital home of the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa: asasa.org.za.
7
WHAT IF I SCREW UP?
Slacktivism and other ethical no-nos
Slacktivism is the practice of supporting a political or social cause through social media or an online petition, which on its own might seem harmless. It could even be very useful and potentially very effective, but the harm is typically done by the low levels of effort or commitment keyboard crusaders are known for. When you are considering taking up a paid-for collaboration with a brand that has some activist or other good-cause element attached to it, tread carefully. You run the risk of being accused of being a lazy slacktivist or of profiting from the distress of others.
In early 2019, the TV personality and rapper Nomuzi Mabena, professionally known as @Moozlie (on Instagram) and @Nomoozlie (Twitter), faced heavy backlash for a campaign she ran on her profiles, in partnership with motor manufacturer Volkswagen South Africa. She seemed to host a live video on Instagram one Thursday night in January, while driving. The live video was then cut off abruptly, in what seemed to be a car accident, judging by the noise and apparent breaking of glass visible before the video ended.
Her management refused to comment on reports that she had been in what appeared to be an accident for 14 hours after the incident, while her fans flooded social media with messages of concern and distress. Some on social media were already suggesting that it might have been a set-up, a stunt of sorts, within hours of the incident. She then took to Instagram with a carefully produced video, revealing that it was a stunt, but also a paid campaign:
“Take the pledge and make the change to #VWDriveDry in 2019. #Nomuzi”
What I found astounding is that she still only disclosed that she had “partnered” with VW but made no overt use of a hashtag such as #AD, #Sponsored or #Advertisement – of course, there is also Instagram’s built-in disclosure function, which I often use. Four private individuals then duly took the case to the national Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB). The directorate ruled on the two main complaints: that the campaign was unduly graphic and that it didn’t sufficiently disclose the fact that it was a paid campaign.
Even though it was found that this was advertising material that needed to be more clearly “labelled as such (by means of a hashtag or other appropriate identifier)”, Mabena was ultimately excused because it was done in the name of a good cause. “The code is to be applied in the spirit as well as the letter ... We do not consider that the purpose of clause 12 [of the regulation] can have been intended to undermine the strength of a message that is in the public interest and plays an important social responsibility role.”
The regulatory challenge aside, the reaction in the court of public opinion was so vehement that she addressed the reaction with a follow-up video on Instagram three days after the event. In the update, she highlights how she had left a series of digital breadcrumbs in previous posts and in her Instagram Stories over weeks. She had apparently purposefully exhibited irresponsible behaviour relating to alcohol and driving for a while before the staged incident. The point she made in her follow-up video was that only four comments were reportedly made about “reckless
