• 2 months ago
panorama.2019.02.11.million.pound.selfie.sell-off
Transcript
00:00Tonight on Panorama, social media influencers, the new digital superstars.
00:08This is a seismic shift in the way a generation consume their entertainment.
00:13The faces of an advertising revolution, making fortunes from platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
00:20The most I've been offered is £3,000 for one Instagram story.
00:25But is it up front?
00:28There is a tremendous amount of advertising on social media platforms that is being done deceptively.
00:36It's time to celebrate. Grits and some Ciroc Redberry.
00:42In the online world, are big brands sticking to the rules?
00:47Gambling, tobacco, alcohol, products that we know cause harm is happening in something of a kind of wild west.
00:55And who pays the price?
01:00When the anorexia was at its worst, I just deleted social media because it was just making everything worse.
01:20How we're being sold to is changing fast.
01:24It used to be easy to spot what big business was up to.
01:28We knew what was going on.
01:32But now it's more complicated.
01:35Advertising has changed.
01:39In this new world of smartphones and social media, brands have found a way of reaching directly into our lives.
01:47Good morning and welcome to Dubai.
01:56A YouTube stamp of me.
01:59These are the stars of Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.
02:03Hanging out with the world's biggest domestic cat called Badger.
02:07People who've built huge followings off the back of our obsession with social media.
02:12Posting about anything from fashion to lifestyle advice.
02:16I think I broke my neck. That's how I feel right now.
02:20As we look into their lives, they show us what we need to buy to be just like them.
02:25I have a little integration sponsorship from The Body Shop who have these new body yogurts.
02:32And I'm really excited to be doing this video because I'm working with Mango on it.
02:35I'm working with Gillette today.
02:39Driven by an industry desperate to capture our attention,
02:43some of these digital superstars have revolutionised how companies plug their products.
02:48These are the social media influencers.
02:52These influencers are like friends to their followers.
02:55You know, they let them into their lives.
02:57They share their triumphs and their sorrows and their day-to-day with these people and they build trust.
03:02And brands can use that trust as a really convincing way of kind of putting their products into those lives.
03:09Zara McDermott is a prominent UK influencer.
03:15She shot to fame after appearing on the last series of Love Island.
03:22How did life change for you after being on Love Island?
03:27A lot. Very dramatically.
03:29Every brand that existed, it felt like, wanted to jump on the bandwagon.
03:35And I was inundated with deals and, to be honest, still am.
03:39I think, wow, everyone kind of wants a piece of me and a piece of my social media.
03:44And it's quite flattering in a way. It really is.
03:55After Love Island, her Instagram following exploded.
03:58She now has over a million followers.
04:02Many of them are young women under 25.
04:06On nights out, she's mobbed for selfies.
04:09And her posts receive thousands of likes almost instantly.
04:19With such a huge following, Zara is proving irresistible to some brands.
04:24Today, she's modelling a dress for an online fashion store.
04:28She's taking pictures for her Instagram feed.
04:33Social media makes products more real and more enticing to young people.
04:38I think people can start to see through really scripted advertisements that you might see on TV.
04:45Whereas someone seeing how a dress might look while I'm out in a restaurant shows them how it really looks.
04:52What's the most you've ever got offered for a post of a product?
04:56£3,000 for one Instagram story, which would probably take me maybe 10 minutes to do.
05:06Influencers are now so in demand that talent agencies have sprung up to represent them.
05:13They connect brands to influencers, who then promote products online.
05:18Gleam Futures has around 50 top social media stars that can reach a massive audience.
05:27Zoe Sugg has 12 million followers on YouTube, just under 11 million followers on Instagram.
05:35This is her first novel. It sold 78,000 copies in the first week.
05:40It set a record as being the fastest selling debut novel by any author in history.
05:45Advertising money is pouring into influencer marketing.
05:49The industry is said to be worth more than $4 billion worldwide and is still growing.
05:56This isn't a medium that is going to go away or be a fad and then disappear the next minute.
06:02This is a seismic shift.
06:04You now have an audience generation that consume media in a very different way than the generation previous to them.
06:10And you also have a generation of talent or influencers that have access to audiences without the filters of the previous generation.
06:20So the editors, the media owners, the commissioners, the studio bosses.
06:25You have direct access to an audience.
06:31Influencer marketing is a world away from the iconic advertising campaigns of the past.
06:39Wherever an ad appears, on TV, in print or online, strict rules govern how brands market their products.
06:48It must be clear when we're being sold something.
06:56Everybody here is well versed on what the guidelines are for influencers.
07:01How you can make a post really clear to an audience that it's got a commercial partner and all of those kind of things.
07:08We've got people in our books who are hugely frustrated by having to compete for what would be their dream job
07:16with people that don't follow the rules.
07:19Just a week after our interview, news broke which took the shine off what Gleam had said.
07:25Ellie Goulding and Rita Ora are among 16 public figures who've agreed to be more open on social media about when they're paid to endorse products.
07:34And two of Gleam's biggest stars, Zoe Sugg, also known as Zoella, and Jim Chapman, were amongst them.
07:42The Competition and Markets Authority had been investigating if ads were being properly flagged up by social media stars.
07:51In a number of posts that we saw, there was nothing at all to show that a payment had been made
07:56or a product was gifted or loaned to the individual or celebrity.
08:00They really need to take this seriously because it has a big impact on the decisions that we take about what we want to buy.
08:07And that can also affect other businesses that are playing by the rules that want to have a chance to fairly sell their products.
08:14The CMA says it will take court action if influencers don't stick to promises to be clearer.
08:20Gleam has now told Panorama that Jim Chapman and Zoe Sugg are committed to providing absolute clarity to their audiences.
08:30It's not just transparency that's an issue in the social influencer business.
08:35The advertising laws protect under-18s from gambling and alcohol advertising.
08:41But that hasn't stopped some companies approaching influencers.
08:49Zara McDermott has discovered this dark side of the industry for herself.
08:53Probably 60-70% of the stuff that comes my way I'll turn down.
08:58What sort of stuff?
09:00Anything gambling related, alcohol related.
09:03You wouldn't even believe the amount of 12, 13, 14 year olds that see our posts.
09:09I would never want to sell something that could be potentially harmful and dangerous to someone.
09:18Most YouTubers tell the camera nearly everything.
09:21It almost makes you feel like you know the person even though you've never met them.
09:2613 year old Matty Hibbert is a keen follower of social media influencers.
09:32When you're watching them it's like you've got a window into their life.
09:43With 8 million subscribers this hugely popular YouTuber is one of the influencers Matty followed, Morgz.
09:52He normally does like quite family friendly content.
09:54Just stuff that would appeal to quite a lot of kids.
09:59Morgz is only 17 himself.
10:02On one post he seemed ecstatic.
10:08I was scrolling through YouTube one day and I saw a video by Morgz.
10:13And he was opening these boxes on the site and winning amazing things.
10:173, 2, 1.
10:20Like iPhones and boxes that were like £15.
10:23He was getting stuff worth hundreds and thousands.
10:26That's what kind of sold it to me and that's the main reason I actually went on the site.
10:314, 3, 2, 1.
10:36Morgz was promoting Mystery Brand.
10:39It looks like a game but it actually involves spending real money to try to win a top prize.
10:45Much like gambling.
10:47In just the last three months of 2018 the Mystery Brand website received more than 3.5 million hits.
10:56There was a box where you could actually win a gaming PC which are really expensive like thousands of pounds.
11:02And my first reaction was I want that.
11:07Matty never had to give his age.
11:10He spent his birthday money trying to win the expensive PC.
11:14What happened then?
11:15I won a key ring and a pot of slime but it never arrived.
11:20So you ended up with absolutely nothing?
11:22Yeah, nothing at all. £35 vanished.
11:25What do you think about Morgz?
11:28He knows that his fan base is mostly children around this age and that he would promote something that is gambling.
11:36It's very bad.
11:37Morgz has told Panorama he was assured the site was an e-commerce store.
11:42But accepts he was naive.
11:44He's removed the video and apologises to his followers.
11:48He hasn't denied that he was paid to promote Mystery Brand.
11:53They're a big influence, aren't they, on teenagers.
11:56They should be being careful what they put on.
11:59They should be regulated so that people of his age aren't like,
12:03oh that looks good, but they're going to, aren't they?
12:05They're going to think, oh he does it, so that looks really good, I'm going to do it.
12:09Mystery Brand's website is still online and is now being investigated by the Gambling Commission.
12:15We've had no response to emails we sent to the address on the site.
12:19YouTube told Panorama that creators must ensure their content complies with local laws and YouTube guidelines,
12:27including disclosing if they've been paid to endorse products.
12:31They also said that they take action quickly if videos violate these policies.
12:38One of the attractive aspects of social media influencing is because it happens on social media,
12:45it's happening in something of a kind of wild west.
12:48A place where the rules are often not enforced, a place where infractions often aren't seen.
12:55And I think definitely when you are a gambling company,
12:58when the rules are really tightened for you in the traditional media market,
13:02that's one of the drivers for you to take to a place like social media.
13:08This is about more than young influencers recommending the latest product to their followers.
13:14Behind it all is big business.
13:17They spend millions of pounds on social media influencing.
13:26DJ Khaled has been dubbed the king of Snapchat.
13:31British booze giant Diageo, behind brands such as Smirnoff and Guinness,
13:36was keen to tap into his huge following.
13:39He promotes the company's Ciroc vodka.
13:42Two weeks in a row, number one.
13:44It's time to celebrate.
13:45Grits, cinnamon toast crunch, a little berries and some Ciroc red berry.
13:55His posts caught the attention of US lawyer Bonnie Patton.
13:59Her organisation, Truth in Advertising,
14:02spotted that DJ Khaled's sponsored posts hadn't all been clearly labelled.
14:08He was deceptively marketing a number of alcohol brands on his Snapchat stories
14:15without any disclosure that these were commercials.
14:21After Truth in Advertising contacted DJ Khaled,
14:24he deleted some posts and flagged others as adverts.
14:28He didn't admit any wrongdoing.
14:31Truth in Advertising went on to raise concerns about 50 more influencers
14:36and their 1,700 posts on Instagram.
14:39It's time that you get yourself a gift.
14:41Ciroc Prince Vanilla with your eggnog, keeping it festive.
14:45Influencers were acting like Santa Claus to sell Ciroc vodka.
14:53Using cannabis infused mixer with the Ciroc vodka.
14:58People give a recipe where you pour in basically half a bottle of Ciroc
15:04with a cap full of mixer.
15:07These 50 influencers account for over 100 million followers.
15:13None of the influencers that we looked into had any mechanism
15:20to restrict their Ciroc ads to those over the legal drinking age.
15:28Diageo is a London-based British company.
15:32The UK's regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority,
15:35has asked Diageo to stop a social media campaign before,
15:39saying it was likely to appeal to children.
15:42In this case, it decided it couldn't act.
15:45We were very surprised by the ASA's response.
15:49We thought what we handed them was the perfect kind of evidence
15:55for them to go forward with an action.
15:58This is a lost opportunity for the ASA to say something
16:02in an area that can really harm kids.
16:07This is the Truth in Advertising letter,
16:13and this is the response of the ASA.
16:16Can I have a look?
16:17I've got some of the posts as well.
16:19Just from a quick skim read of this,
16:22it looks like the issue here was over the jurisdiction
16:28of the influencers that were involved in this,
16:30that the influencers were based in the US
16:34or other parts of Europe rather than the UK.
16:37Diageo is a British company.
16:39The product is sold in the UK.
16:41It just doesn't add up that this wouldn't be your responsibility.
16:45Well, I'm very happy to have a look at that,
16:47but these jurisdictional issues are not always straightforward.
16:51But it tends to be the case that if the advertising is originating
16:55from a different jurisdiction, then we would regard that
16:58as being a matter for the authority in that country.
17:00But without you having raised this with us in advance
17:04of this interview and given us an opportunity to look at the facts,
17:07it's difficult for me to say any more.
17:10Two months on, the American regulator, the FTC,
17:13is still investigating.
17:15Diageo continues to use social media influencers.
17:19In a statement, it told Panorama it's been editing
17:22and removing the non-compliant influencer posts it can control
17:26and has asked its influencers to be clearer in their posts.
17:30DJ Khaled!
17:33An agent for DJ Khaled didn't come back to us.
17:36Snapchat says it relies on the influencers and brands
17:39to make clear if there's a commercial relationship
17:42and to work within advertising laws.
17:52You are spending an awful lot more time on your phones,
17:56a lot more time on social media.
17:58There are dangers to phones and social media.
18:01Do you feel pressure when you're looking at social media
18:04or looking at your phone, looking at anything online,
18:06to buy and surround yourself with certain products?
18:09At Crestwood Community School in Hampshire,
18:12the new global stars of social media
18:15are a part of nearly every child's life.
18:17Who follows people on social media
18:20who are, like, famous Instagrammers and YouTubers?
18:24Hands up high if you do.
18:26I can see a half-hand there.
18:28OK, that's most people.
18:31After assembly, I met up with a group of Year 10 and 11 students.
18:35Hi, guys.
18:36How much time do you spend each day on social media?
18:39Seven hours.
18:40I could arguably say ten hours.
18:42A day.
18:45Do you think you could function as a teenager without social media?
18:49Not at all.
18:51Not even a single bit.
18:54Some of the students told me that social media can be positive for them,
18:58though following influencers with seemingly perfect lives
19:01isn't always healthy.
19:03With celebrities, when I was younger,
19:06I felt sad because I didn't look like them
19:08or I didn't feel like I was as attractive as them.
19:12Do you feel that? Yeah, I feel like that as well.
19:14And, like, lifestyle choices, like what to eat
19:16and, like, what body size you want.
19:18If I spend too long on social media,
19:20I feel a bit depressed when I come back to reality
19:23because it's so much, like, I can't handle it.
19:29The stars of social media need their followers to trust them.
19:34Children seem most prepared to.
19:37The relationship has gifted advertisers a near-captive audience.
19:42But is this combination of adolescence,
19:45unrealistic body images and hidden marketing too toxic a mix?
19:50On a daily basis, we're picking up issues
19:52to do with children's mental health.
19:54Social media being a massive part of that.
19:57The self-harming, the suicide attempts,
20:00they see these role models, how they have these perfect lives,
20:04and they aspire to that.
20:06But there's that sense of, will they ever be good enough?
20:09And what it really has knocked is children's self-esteem
20:12and how they feel about themselves.
20:17Katie Holloway was a second-year university student
20:20when she says she suffered as a result of her exposure to social media.
20:25I found that I was on Instagram and things,
20:28just scrolling, like, every night,
20:30and there were certain accounts that I would just look at every day.
20:35I was just obsessed with social media.
20:40I used to follow loads of, like, fitness accounts,
20:43models or fitness models,
20:46and I would be looking at what they're eating, what they're doing,
20:49and because if I do that, then it's, like, in your head,
20:52you think, oh, you might end up looking like that.
20:56Katie had anorexia, and hooked on social media,
21:00she was obsessed about what she ate.
21:05I was terrified of food.
21:07If, like, I went home and my mum cooked for me,
21:11like, it was overwhelming emotions.
21:14Like, I was just so scared of eating it
21:16because I thought it was going to make me gain weight.
21:20I was really depressed. I was just so depressed.
21:25When I got to my worst, then I realised that things had to change
21:29and I had to start doing things differently to recover from anorexia.
21:34I just deleted social media because it was just making everything worse.
21:39So, guys, I've just finished filming,
21:41which means a lot of drinking and a lot of kebabs,
21:44and I've heard a lot of people go on about Skinny Coffee Club's
21:47seven-day espresso programme.
21:49Amongst the social media feeds of health and fitness influencers,
21:53weight-loss drinks and diet supplements are everywhere.
21:57I would highly recommend it.
21:59The results I've got are absolutely amazing.
22:02One of them is Skinny Coffee Club.
22:05I can't believe it. I lost eight pounds in seven days.
22:09I feel really energetic and less bloated.
22:12I'm feeling really good and toned.
22:14An army of influencers tells us how it's changed their lives.
22:18It curbed my appetite. I wasn't hungry at all.
22:21I can't thank you enough, Skinny Coffee Club,
22:24for helping me reach my goals in such a short space of time.
22:28Skinny Coffee Club.
22:29Skinny Coffee Club.
22:30Skinny Coffee Club.
22:33You can buy Skinny Coffee Club in health food,
22:36You can buy Skinny Coffee Club in health food shops on the high street.
22:40It recommends people drink a mug a day.
22:43Oh, here it is. Skinny Coffee Club.
22:46Simple, fast and fabulous.
22:52On the company's website, customers are assured
22:55that the product will burn fat fast and boost metabolism,
22:59and is clinically proven to lose weight fast.
23:04In 2017, the ASA issued a formal warning against Skinny Coffee Club,
23:10telling them to remove these claims.
23:13But a year and a half later, the company hasn't changed its website
23:17and carried on recruiting influencers.
23:20Charlotte Rollin was approached by Skinny Coffee Club in March last year.
23:24So the first email says,
23:25Hi, I run Skinny Coffee Club and we're currently recruiting
23:28brand ambassadors for our products.
23:29And I was wondering if this is something that you would be interested in.
23:32We mainly focus on Instagram. You can check ours out here.
23:35If you'd like to know more on how to get started, let me know
23:37and we can get you sorted.
23:39Charlotte blogs about fashion and mental health issues.
23:46So if you're not already aware, I've spoken about my eating disorder
23:50on Instagram and Twitter quite a lot and on my blog, really.
23:54Charlotte's had anorexia.
23:56She believes many of her followers have had similar issues.
23:59But yeah, I just thought now would be a good time.
24:02I wouldn't say I'm fully recovered,
24:03but I'm definitely in a far better place than I was.
24:06She was appalled that she'd been approached by a company
24:09with a product claiming to help weight loss.
24:12Show me your response then, because you replied here.
24:17OK, what did you say?
24:18So I basically explained that after they'd emailed me three times,
24:21I felt it was necessary to reply,
24:23basically in the hope of preventing any further correspondence from them.
24:27I find it extremely distasteful and ill-informed
24:29that you would consider me an appropriate promoter for your product.
24:33I would under no circumstances promote a product
24:35which encourages women to feel inadequate with their bodies.
24:38I would certainly never do so with my audience,
24:40many of whom have also suffered with disordered eating.
24:46These companies basically won't stop at anything
24:49to try and promote their products
24:51and get people on board with influencer marketing,
24:54because I think that is probably one of the most effective ways
24:57that they're gaining customers.
24:58It's been another amazing week using Skinny Coffee Club.
25:02So get following, girls.
25:05What we have with Skinny Coffee Club
25:06is a company that's been sanctioned some time ago,
25:08is ignoring that, still making claims on its website
25:13and still being pushed constantly by social media influencers.
25:18Does that mean that you don't have the power
25:20to control what these people are saying?
25:22No, I don't think it's as binary as that.
25:24Clearly there are challenges in regulating the internet
25:27and there are challenges in regulating some of the promoted posts
25:31that social influencers are pushing.
25:34It would be lovely if we could wave a magic wand
25:37and stop everything immediately, but life isn't like that.
25:41We will look carefully into the example that you've just told me about
25:46and see whether or not we can build the case against this company.
25:52Skinny Coffee Club hasn't responded to Panorama.
25:56Facebook and Instagram have now blocked UK users
25:59from seeing the two examples we've sent them.
26:02Influencers and the brands that pay them
26:05can only reach their audiences
26:07through a handful of the world's biggest companies.
26:11Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube
26:14now have more than three billion users.
26:19The tech giants have always maintained
26:21that they are not themselves responsible
26:23for what is being published on their platform,
26:25that they are platforms, not publishers, in fact.
26:28The tech is moving at a dizzying, dizzying pace
26:31and the tech companies themselves are the only people
26:33that can kind of keep up with that.
26:35The journey now is trying to convince them
26:37and trying to work with them, I think,
26:39to try and find out how they can step up
26:41and take more responsibility in these areas.
26:44The public outcry over imagery on social media
26:47promoting self-harm and suicide
26:49is putting pressure on social media companies
26:52to do more to look after children.
26:55The government tells social media companies
26:57to take more responsibility for harmful online content
27:00in a bid to protect vulnerable young people.
27:05The giant social media companies
27:07insist they are continually improving measures
27:10to protect children.
27:12But the patience of England's Children's Commissioner
27:15is already running out.
27:18If you're growing up in the digital age,
27:20as all kids are now,
27:22you've got five or six companies
27:24that have a huge power in your life
27:26and you're absolutely the small guy in the end of that
27:29without any power or say.
27:32And that just has to change
27:34if companies chose not to follow the legal requirements.
27:39There could be fines, there could be closing off,
27:42they could be shut down and the like.
27:44None of us would think it would be a good thing
27:47to drop our kids off at a park gate at nine o'clock at night
27:50and just leave them to wander around in the dark.
27:53But essentially, what we're doing with the internet
27:56is doing that and leaving them to fend for themselves.
28:01Social media promised to improve all our lives
28:05by making us better connected.
28:07The business of selling
28:09has ended up with a direct line to our children.
28:12With fortunes at stake,
28:14who will protect them?