The Kardashian family has landed itself in trouble after the watch dog advertisement group, Truth in Advertising, sent a letter to the Kardashian-Jenner family that they found over 100 Instagram paid product placement posts on their social media sites that weren’t marked as advertisements. Truth in Advertising is giving the Kardashians a week to take down the posts before they notify the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of falsehood and the FCC could potentially launch an investigation.
The group found these product placement posts on five of the Kardashian-Jenner siblings social media accounts. This Monday, Truth in Advertising, released information that claimed Kylie Jenner had the most of these wrongfully labeled posts, with Kim Kardashian taking second place.
One example of false advertisement was when Kylie Jenner posted that she uses Pureleef’s new facial cleanser on her social media site and claimed that it is her favorite cleanser yet. With these posts, Jenner gets her fans to buy these products without them knowing that she was paid to lure in future customers for her endorsers. With the Kardashian family regularly posting pictures of their “favorite” personal products on their sites, they are breaking federal law by letting their followers believe they use certain brands for enjoyment and don’t reveal the money making relationship they have with their endorsers.
Although for the Kardashians, this isn’t the first time members in the socialite family was accused of not properly labeling their comments/posts as ads. About a year ago, Kim Kardashian posted a photo on Instagram about a morning sickness medicine that she was endorsed by and didn’t warn any of her follows of the possible side effects. The FDA forced her to take down the post and warned Kardashian of the harms of false advertisement.
The Kardashians and celebrities all over the world benefit from company endorsements on social media sites. Reportedly, Kendall Jenner alone made up to 300,00 dollars from one single endorsement.
The Kardashian-Jenner family have yet to comment on the false advertising allegations.
