Beauty influencers could soon be banned from using filters which distort or exaggerate their appearance, thanks to a new ruling from the Advertising Standards Agency in the UK. Which is good news today for anyone who has stared at an Instagram post until their eyes went blurry and it became an indecipherable series of pixels, desperately trying to work out if they’re the only one in the world who has visible pores and the mere suggestion of hip dips.
Responding to a recent campaign (#filterdrop, which called for it to be made compulsory for influencers to disclose when they were using a beauty filter while promoting skincare or cosmetics) spearheaded by makeup artist and model Sasha Pallari, the advertising watchdog ruled that filters should not be applied to any ads on social media if they exaggerate the effects of the products being advertised.
The ASA came to their conclusion, reports BBC, after examining two examples of ads where filters had been used to sell tanning products, ruling that by applying a filter the influencers and brands “misleadingly exaggerated the effect the product was capable of achieving”. As a result, the ads violated rules on misleading consumers.
So, from now on, all UK brands, influencers and celebrities will have to adhere to the #nofilter way of life, at least when it comes to advertising beauty products. This applies not just to grid posts, where the filter can easily be hidden, but also to Instagram stories, with the ASA ruling that filtered beauty content is still misleading even if the filter is clearly seen in the story itself. For those influencers who break the rules, the ASA say that ads will be taken down and prohibited from appearing again in our feeds.
“An ongoing focus of our work in this area continues to be on raising awareness of the rules and supporting influencers with the guidance and tools they need to help get their ads right,” a spokesperson from the Advertising Standards Agency told BBC. “We’re also working closely with the social media platforms who can and will enforce our rulings where an advertiser is unwilling or able to work with us.”
RIP Hot Girl Pretty Eyes Baby Sexy Time filter, we hardly knew ye.