While posting photos and videos on social media was once seen as a hobby, it’s not a lucrative career for many influencers.
With the rise of the influencer community, the Advertising Standards Authority has put in strict rules, which mean any adverts must be clearly marked.
However, one influencer has been reprimanded this week over a TikTok post which promoted a hair styling brand.
Emily Canham, who has almost 700,000 followers on the popular social media platform, uploaded a video of herself using a GHD hairdryer and straighteners to TikTok on June 14.
It bore the caption: "hiii just a lil psa there's 20% off the GHD website TODAY ONLY with the code EMILY ... #fyp #foryourpage.”
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that the post should have been marked with an ad hashtag or similar identifier.
An agent for Ms Canham told ASA her client was not paid for the video, which was also uploaded to YouTube, nor did she receive a commission for the promotional code it featured.
And GHD said it did not have oversight or approval of the post.
However, the regulator said in its ruling that because the promotional code was linked to the 23-year-old Londoner's agreement with GHD "we considered the post was an ad for the purposes of the Code”.
Ms Canham has since deleted the post. ASA said it has told her and GHD to ensure future ads were "obviously identifiable as marketing communications".
Over the years, several influencer posts have been banned for failing to make clear they were ads, including posts from Louise Thompson, Millie Macintosh and Marnie Simpson.
However, this is the first time that a post on TikTok has been flagged for not making clear it was an ad.
Speaking when the rules were first introduced in 2018, George Lusty, the CMA's Senior Director for Consumer Protection said: " If celebrities or influencers are posting about a product on social media, they must make it clear if they've been paid to promote it, or have been gifted, loaned a product or thanked in some other way by a brand. No one should be left thinking that a Tweet or Instagram post is just the person's opinion when it's not."
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