Consumers Distrust Influencer Marketing More Than Advertising

Misleading influencer posts

The study comes as more influencers face scrutiny for not disclosing brand partnerships. In the last six months, NAD said there have been five consumer class action cases where the plaintiff alleges harm after purchasing a product based on an influencer recommendation and later learned that the influencer was paid to promote the product. The lawsuits argue that if the plaintiffs had known that such posts were advertisements, they wouldn’t have bought the product. 

One lawsuit against fashion retailer Revolve alleges three influencers failed to label sponsored posts and omitted that Revolve’s prices are 10–40% higher than competitors. Another lawsuit against energy drink brand Celsius alleges influencers promoted the drink without disclosing their brand association, leading to “artificially inflated prices and sales.”

“We were seeing more and more of these cases and learning that maybe there’s more influencers out there that are not making these disclosures or relationships with a brand very clear to consumers,” NAD’s Santos said.

For NAD’s part, the group said that is committed to putting resources towards developing a training and certification program for influencers to increase the level of trust in influencer marketing.