Love Island star Luke Mabbott and online fashion giant Boohoo have been rapped after failing to flag up a TikTok post as an ad.
The ITV reality show finalist posted a video on the popular site showing him posing in two outfits with the captions: “Which look do you prefer” and “Outfit from @boohooman #boohooman”.
Influencer Luke, 25, who has more than one million followers on Instagram and almost 600,000 on TikTok is the social media face of Boohoo, which has snapped up some of the high street’s biggest names such as Debenhams, Burton and Dorothy Perkins.
He was reprimanded along with the fashion brand by regulator the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) following a complaint that his post in November was a marketing ploy and had not been identified as an ad with the appropriate hashtag.
The ASA upheld the complaint and agreed it flouted strict rules to make it clear to followers if content was commercial with markers such as #ad in a prominent place.
It said Luke and Boohoo were “jointly responsible for ensuring that promotional activity conducted by Mr Mabbott on Boohoo’s behalf was compliant” with its code.
And it ordered both parties to “ensure that in future their ads were obviously identifiable as marketing communications.”
Boohoo told the ASA that its BoohooMan brand had a “contractual agreement” with the Love Island favourite to ensure all social media posts were clearly marked as ads.
It said the dating show finalist had been reminded of his responsibilities and the post had been amended to meet the ASA’s criteria.
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