Oreo has had its vlogger advertising campaign banned by the ASA, after one complaint that the videos were not clearly marked as ads.
The report has once again cast the spotlight on the relationship between brands and bloggers and we’ve looked at the implications of the judgement on our blog.
Also in this edition, we discuss how the European Parliament has voted to break up Google’s search and advertising businesses.
Video Transcript
Hello, and welcome Digital Minute. In this edition, we look at why Oreo got a telling-off from the ASA and how the EU is taking a stand against Google.
A series of ads for Oreo, featuring a number of British YouTubers, have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for being misleading.
The watchdog claimed that the videos, which saw stars like Phil Lester and Dan Howell take part in a “lick race”, didn’t make it clear that they were actually part of a promotional campaign. The ASA received just one complaint about the ads and although they did say “thanks to Oreo”, the ASA decided that wasn’t enough.
The judgement has cast another spotlight on the issue of native advertising and the ways in which branded content and editorial content coexist. We’ve analysed what the judgement means over on our blog.
Is Google getting too dominant? Well, the European parliament certainly thinks so after it voted that Google’s search and advertising businesses should be broken up.
The parliament itself is completely powerless to do anything, but the ‘yes’ vote means that the proposals have been recommended to the European Commission. It can regulate Google in Europe and although it is unlikely to implement the recommendations, it is expected to try and extend the controversial “right to be forgotten” rule to Google searches outside of Europe.
“Thanks for watching. I’m Michael Hewitt, and that was your Digital Minute.”
How to subscribe
To ensure you don’t miss an episode, we’ve ensured you can subscribe in whatever ways suits you. You'll find Digital Minute on:
We hope you’ll find the series useful and would to hear your comments and feedback.
