ASCI CEO asks LinkedIn Influencers to disclose ads in posts

ASCI (Advertising Standard Council of India) has a set of guidelines for LinkedIn what constitutes an ad and the requirements to disclose it. Industry Experts give out their take on LinkedIn praising ad campaigns, and these posts may or may not be a paid promotion.

ASCI CEO, Manisha Kapoor recently took to LinkedIn to clear up ad disclosure policy after ASCI was tagged in a post where an agency co-founder praised an ad of a famous e-commerce platform. Users started talking about how the post looked suspicious and the post could be promotional in nature.

Kapoor posted highlighting how the co-founder should have been cognizant of the influencer disclosure norms and should have been upfront with the ad in the post. The post had #ad at the end. As per the guidelines, influencers are required to use the disclosure tools on the platform to label promotional posts or by stating directly.

She underlined the importance of transparency and how audiences have the right to know the distinction between promotional and organic content and the influencers’ responsibility to do the same.

Kapoor advises influencers who are putting out paid posts to not promote products and services that have restrictions on advertising and to always add the hashtag ad or partnership or appropriate labels right at the beginning of the post, not at the end. She also asked influencers to learn and read up on the laws and regulations that govern the profession.