Richard Branson, the original influencer-founder
Caspar here, co-founder of Creator Ventures. I wrote the article below and thought our Consume Our Internet readers might find it interesting as it relates to a lot of the themes we talk about on this blog. I would love you to share any feedback with me on X @Caspar_Lee - thanks for reading!
Politicians are generally subject to strict rules regarding the disclosure of their financial interests, including shareholdings. These regulations are designed to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure transparency in their decision-making processes.
Creators and influencers are held to a different kind of disclosure standard that involves them having to disclose if they have shares in a company when they post about it or appear in an advert for it.
Steven Bartlett, a co-founder of a marketing agency called Social Chain turned podcaster turned Dragon has been blasted by a press release about how ads featuring his positive reviews about Huel and Zoe have been banned because they didn’t make it clear that he is a shareholder in the companies.
The Zoe advert that was rapped by regulators. Pic: PA
A few months ago, another creator/entrepreneur, Grace Beverly was also blasted by the ASA for promoting her own company, Tala, without expressly telling people in the posts that she owns shares.
Grace Beverly
I’m a big fan of consumers being aware that something is an #AD, I think when adverts are made correctly, people enjoy them and don’t mind supporting a creator who is benefiting from a partnership but I’m just a bit confused about where the line in the sand is drawn.
If creators are now required to disclose their shareholder status when promoting businesses online, does this apply only to private equity, or does it extend to public markets as well? For instance, if a creator holds shares in the Big Five, are they obligated to disclose this when featuring an iPhone in their content?
Does that include anyone with influence online? When Zuckerberg Instagram's about Threads does he have to remind people he owns both platforms? Or is he well known enough to get away with it?
Going back to the Grace Beverly situation, who got called out for promoting her own company. Do we also need to look into Richard Branson, Victoria Beckham and every other founder/CEO with an audience on who talks about something they’ve created without sticking #AD on it?
A lot of you know that Richard Branson owns Virgin, but does the Gen Z cohort know him? I get the importance of what the ASA is trying to achieve and it can’t be easy, I just wonder if there are more specific solutions.
Also, just to disclose that I do benefit from writing this post as a proud shareholder in beehiiv, I’m not sure how much good it’s going to do though.
