| In March 2017, the FTC sent "educational" letters to 46 celebrities who it believed weren't properly disclosing ads on Instagram. Since receiving their letters, all but one celebrity continued to post ads that are not FTC compliant, according to the advocacy group Public Citizen. Today, the group is sending a new letter to the FTC asking it to do something it's never done before: crack down on individual celebrities — not just brands — doing shady Instagram ads. "The only way to get people to follow the rules is enforcement action," Kristen Strader, campaign coordinator for Public Citizen's Commercial Alert, told BuzzFeed News. "Without consequences, influencers and advertisers have no incentive to follow FTC policy and be honest with consumers." The group also wants the FTC to do an broad investigation into the current state of influencer marketing, including working with Instagram to come up a better solution than the new "paid partnership with" feature. It's unclear if the FTC will take Public Citizen's advice and start an investigation or any other enforcement actions. The FTC has no comment on the letter. Historically, the FTC has only ever gone after brands and advertising agencies over undisclosed social media ads. It's never actually filed lawsuits or done any enforcement over individual people. In fact, it's really rare that the FTC does anything at all. Since 2011, the FTC actually brought action only five times, and each time it was about the brand or advertisers, never the individuals. Sending "educational" letters to celebrities was something completely new. Why the change? Perhaps it's because the amount of deceptive influencer marketing on Instagram has increased a lot, and the government is finally dropping the hammer. As BuzzFeed news reported, a recent study showed that out of the top 50 most popular celebrities on Instagram, the majority did ads — and of those ads, 93% did not comply with the FTC's guidelines. Sending those 90 letters this spring indicates a different direction for the FTC: Instead of filing costly and time-consuming legal action once a someone acts badly, tell people how to follow the rules and have popular influencers set an example. From May 1 to June 12, Public Citizen tracked the 46 celebrities who received the warning letters. In those six weeks, all but two of them (basketball player Allen Iverson and NFL player James Harrison) posted more ads. Most posted just a few ads, but some posted a shitload. Fashion blogger Rachel Parcell, model Tiona Fernan, and model/pro basketball player Valentina Vignali all posted more than 30 undisclosed ads each. All together, 412 ads were posted, and 79% of those were not properly disclosed. One of the confusing things Rachel Parcell does is to tag brands in a photo — are we to assume she is just letting fans know where she purchased it? Or that she got it free? Or that she was paid? We have no idea. And in this photo, it seems like it's very possible that her vacation was also a gift — notice how she hashtags the hotel: 
instagram.com The types of ads in these posts aren't as straightforward as someone holding up a bag of diet tea and forgetting to say "#ad". Free gifts or long-term deals like a celebrity creating their own product line for a brand are particularly thorny. In the report that looked at undisclosed ads of the top 50 Instagrammers, it was these kinds of tangled relationships that were the most common offenders. For example, Scott Disick posted about riding a private plane company called Jet Luxe Life that often gives free rides to celebrities in exchange for them posting about it on Instagram. He simply says "thanks @jetluxlife" – what is the average person supposed to assume this means? That he enjoyed the flight he paid for himself, or that he got a free ride, or he got a free ride AND payment for posting? It's not clear at all, and that's the problem. Instagram: @letthelordbewithyou Another one of these celebrities on Public Citizen's list is Zendaya, who also posted about Jet Lux. In what I can only imagine is an admirably passive aggressive move, Zendaya doesn't show herself on a luxurious plane — rather, she's huddled in her sweats on the couch, without even showing her face. Not exactly the kind of photo that Jet Lux probably expected when giving a beautiful starlet a free ride. Instagram: @zendaya Another confusing example that is cited in the letter to the FTC is Jennifer Lopez posting her outfit from the Met Gala. It's hard for the average person to guess what's going on here. Was she paid money by Valentino to post this? Was she just loaned a free outfit? Did she actually buy it herself and just wants to tell people who the designer is? Is she a spokesperson for the fashion brand? Unless you work work in fashion PR, you're probably confused. Instagram: @jlo Some celebrities are doing more obvious ads where they do make some effort to say it's an ad — but their disclosure still fails to meet the FTC's guidelines, which say that terms such as "partner" aren't clear, and that the disclosure should be in the first 3 lines of the caption so that it doesn't get cut off in the [...] when you're scrolling through your feed. For example, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star and TV actress Lisa Rinna uses the hashtag #teamipartner" at the end of her post, but that doesn't meet FTC standards. Public Citizen's stance here is that by now, both Lisa Rinna and the diet drink company know the rules, they're just willfully ignoring them. Instagram: @lisarinna Only one person actually properly disclosed 100% of her ads since receiving the FTC letter: Real Housewives of New Jersey star Caroline Manzo. Caroline Manzo, we salute you. Instagram: @carolinemanzo
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