Kardashians clean up their Instagram act ... kind of

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

August 25, 2016 at 20:01

THE Kardashian sisters — along with Kendall and Kylie Jenner — were told by a watchdog group last week to clean up their Instagram accounts or risk getting some unwanted attention from the US Federal Trade Commission.

Truth in Advertising issued a letter last week claiming the reality stars did not disclose in more than 100 social media posts that they were hawking products for pay. The non-profit organisation called on the reality TV family to correct their posts using hashtags that make it clear that the posts are being paid for.

And it seems the family has listened ... but not completely.

Kim Kardashian, for example, corrected an Instagram post promoting a hair vitamin that originally had the caption, “Excited to be partnering with @sugarbearhair to share their amazing vitamins with you!” Kardashian has added the hashtag #ad.

#ad New obsession @sugarbearhair ? I have two of these a day as part of my hair care routine. They are delish! #sugarbearhair #sp

A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jun 20, 2016 at 12:22pm PDT

Kylie Jenner has also added #ad in front of her endorsed posts, such as one for Fit Tea. Another term being incorporated by the sisters to showcase when an ad is a paid promotion is #sp, meaning sponsored post. Khloe Kardashian inserted #sp in her posts for Flat Tummy Tea and Fit Tea Wraps.
Bonnie Patten, executive director of TruthinAdvertising.org, said the organisation is happy with the edited posts, however she indicated there are posts on the sisters’ pages that have yet to be fixed.

“[Truth in Advertising] is happy to see they are taking steps in the right direction but this issue does not go away until all ads disguised as regular social media posts are clearly labelled as ads,” she told FOX411 in an email. “For far too long, the Kardashian/Jenner family and many of the companies endorsing them have been violating the law and it’s time that they are held accountable.”

Truth in Advertising has threatened to bring a complaint to the FTC if all posts are not edited within a week of when they first contacted the Kardashians on August 17, meaning the one week was up on Wednesday.

FOX411 viewed several posts on Kourtney Kardashian’s Instagram account that appeared to be sponsored but were not marked as such as of press time. One such post about wais trainers read, “I am pretty much the queen of multi-tasking. Obsessed with anything where I am doing more than one thing at a time, especially since I skipped the gym today. A little Saturday morning waist cinching and working on my posture while cleaning out my closet. Thank you @premadonna87@waistgangsociety for my obsession!!! You can get one at whatsawaist.com.”

Patten said deceptive posts are a huge problem.

I am pretty much the queen of multitasking. Obsessed with anything where I am doing more than one thing at a time, especially since I skipped the gym today. A little Saturday morning waist cinching and working on my posture while cleaning out my closet. Thank you @premadonna87 @waistgangsociety for my obsession!!! You can get one at whatsawaist.com. ???

A photo posted by Kourtney Kardashian (@kourtneykardash) on Sep 5, 2015 at 9:03am PDT

“Advertising of this sort deceives consumers and harms legitimate business that are following the law,” she stated.

The site investigated the sisters and found that Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie Jenner were endorsing products like Puma, Fit Tea, Sugar Bear Hair vitamins, along with a slew of other companies without disclosing they were getting paid for promotion.

The FTC makes it illegal for celebrities and journalists to not disclose when they are being monetarily compensated for product promotion.

This story was originally published on Fox News and is republished here with permission.