Over 700 posts from influencers across social media platforms were found to be in violation of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) guidelines between July and December 2021, the self-regulatory body said in a report. The report identified the following practices by influencers to be a violation — Absence of disclosures Inconsistency in disclosures: "For example, in Instagram stories, while the first story may have the disclosure, the [following] ones that did not have a disclosure," the body said. Incorrect disclosure placement: The disclosure labels were not placed in a manner that was easily visible to the audience, the body added. Influencer-driven marketing strategies have emerged as a viable alternative model for companies to promote their brands. However, since advertising on social media has largely been an unregulated space, the line between content and sponsored content has increasingly become blurry. Consumers may view promotional content without understanding the commercial intent behind the same, ASCI's influencer marketing guidelines said. Most violations were related to content on fashion: ASCI report [caption id="attachment_155554" align="aligncenter" width="773"] Source: ASCI[/caption] The ASCI report provided a category-wise break-up of the 700 violations that it identified and found that 29% of them were to do with fashion and lifestyle . These were the other categories of content that were identified — Cosmetic: 19% Food and beverage: 13% Personal care: 12% These findings are a result of suo motu screenings that ASCI took up of 5,000 posts/feeds/stories from influencer handles between July - December 2021. "Out of the total complaints…
