The Times - UK (2020-10-17)

the times | Saturday October 17 2020 1GM 17

News

For years it was an unwritten rule of

Instagram: if a celebrity enthused

about a bag, a beach holiday or even a

book, it was probably not just because

they thought it was any good.

A great many, it emerged as the pop-

ularity of the photo-sharing app soared,

were being secretly paid to endorse all

manner of products.

Yesterday, however, after an investi-

gation by the Competition and Markets

Authority (CMA), Instagram vowed to

do more to tackle the problem of social

media influencers and celebrities post-

ing images without telling their follow-

ers they had an ulterior motive.

The CMA had said it was concerned

that Instagram, which is owned by

Facebook, was not doing enough about

the practice.

Endorsements from celebrities and

influencers can boost sales, as millions

follow social media channels to see

where they holiday, what they wear and

which products they use. The app says

that it will start using algorithms that

patrick kidd

TMS

[email protected] | @timesdiary

Boris was the

‘stupidest’ boy

Earl Spencer writes about his long

friendship with the prime minister

in Saga magazine. It goes back to

Eton, where Boris Johnson edited

the school magazine and Spencer

was his arts editor, and they had a

few teenaged holidays together.

“He seemed to quite like Europe in

those days,” Spencer says. The

blond hair was a weapon even

then. “He stood out because he

looked different,” he says, but the

chaotic act was also disarming. On

their first day another boy, who

had only just scraped in, took one

look at the future PM and told

Spencer: “At least I’m not going to

be the stupidest boy here.”

Lord Singh of Wimbledon is happier

than most with the new normal.

When peers were first told about

the “rule of six”, Singh joked: “It is

time that Sikhs were in charge.”

political wrangle

You don’t have to be a mad

contrarian to get on television but

it helps. The journalist Catherine

Mayer says she hates the modern,

adversarial way of doing politics. “I

get rung up and asked to come on

to argue ridiculous propositions

against ridiculous people,” she

says. The BBC’s Question Time

once asked her, before a possible

booking, what she thought of

Brexit. As Time magazine’s Europe

editor, Mayer, below, gave an

informed, balanced answer.

“Oh,” the producer said, with

evident disappointment.

“That’s very reasonable.”

She wasn’t called back.

There was an odd request

on Classic FM yesterday

lunchtime. A mother

contacted the station

asking for a particular

tune for her seven-month-

old baby as it “makes his

day”. The piece? Nessun

Dorma. Or None Shall Sleep. I’d

have thought that Brahms’s Lullaby

would be more useful.

rourke’s drift

The American writer PJ O’Rourke

spent 20 years as a foreign

correspondent but there comes a

time when a plump pillow and a

wine list become more important.

“I filed from 45 different countries

— none of them the nice ones,” he

told the How to Academy. “Not

once did I get to file from Paris.” It

was while covering the Iraq war

that he decided to hang up his flak

jacket. O’Rourke recalls his point

of epiphany, when he thought:

“I’m too old to be scared stiff, and

too stiff to sleep on the ground.”

Sir Nicholas Wright ends our series

on careers advice with a story about

a former colleague, Donald Moss,

who was dismissed by the Cambridge

careers service after taking a third-

class degree in chemistry. “Moss,

when the ICIs and Pilkingtons come

here, they take the chocolate eclairs

and vanilla slices,” the adviser said.

“You are just a plain bun.” Maybe,

but the plain bun went on to be

professor of clinical enzymology.

for the record

Further to yesterday’s item on

politicians giving their preferred

answer whatever the question,

Alexandra Kingston told me about

recording an interview at Downing

Street for ITN when they were

warned that Margaret Thatcher

was determined to talk about

money that had been awarded to

Stoke Mandeville despite there

being bigger news. Michael

Brunson, the interviewer,

began by telling Thatcher that

the first thing he wanted to

ask about was the hospital

grant. “She absolutely

beamed and launched

into it,” Kingston said.

“At the end I heard the

director in my ear say,

‘Right, that’s done. Now

roll to record.’ ”

Instagram stars face clampdown on secret freebies

Tom Knowles

Technology Correspondent

can detect when users have not dis-

closed that their post is an advert.

Facebook Ireland, which operates

Instagram in the UK, said it was imple-

menting measures to address the issue,

including prompting users to confirm

that a post had been paid for and requir-

ing them to make this clearer if necessa-

ry. Businesses will also be given a tool to

help them to monitor how their prod-

ucts are being promoted and will be

given a warning by Instagram if a celeb-

rity is promoting their brand without

disclosing that it is an advert.

Clear labelling of incentivised posts is

required under consumer protection

law so that people are not misled. Ad-

vertising on social media is considered

to be different from other forms

because messages can be mistaken for

spontaneous, non-commercial posts.

Celebrities typically earn from

£1,000 to £10,000 per sponsored post,

as brands can reach audiences of mil-

lions on Instagram at a far lower cost

than traditional advertising platforms.

Some £240,000 a year can be earned by

popular stars. “Nano-influencers”,

those with fewer followers, may make

£5,000 a year. The

global influencer

marketing industry

is worth about

£6 billion annually.

Last year many

celebrities and

social media influ-

encers with tens of

millions of followers

promised the CMA

that they would stop

plugging brands

without revealing they

had been paid to do so.

The CMA secured

commitments from 16

celebrities, including

the singer Rita Ora.

They were told to de-

clare any relationships

with companies they

featured, even when

sent freebies “out of

the blue”. The CMA

also told the celebrities

not to use ambiguous

language without ad-

ditional disclosure,

such as “thank you” or

“made possible by”, or hide the word

“ad” at the end of other hashtags or text.

Andrea Coscelli, the chief executive

of the CMA, said: “For too long, major

platforms have shied away from taking

responsibility for hidden advertising on

their site, so this commitment to tackle

hidden adverts and overhaul the way

people post on Instagram — making it

difficult for users to ignore the law — is

a welcome step forward.

“These changes mean there will be

no excuse for businesses to overlook

how their brands are being advertised

either, making life a lot harder for those

who are not upfront and honest with

their followers.”

Rita Ora was among

stars who agreed to

reveal ties to brands

w

h

c

c

th

c

w

fe

se

th

a

n

la

d

su