The digital marketing world was set abuzz when Norway announced a new law that seeks greater transparency from influencers. This new regulation was passed as an amendment to Norway’s Marketing Act. All paid advertisers and influencers will need to clearly indicate on their Instagram posts whether the photos have undergone any form of retouched advertising (basically, Photoshop).
Norway’s King Harald V will make the decision on when the law will come into effect. Advertisers who violate this law would be fined or even receive a prison sentence.
Advertisers Beware
The objective of this amendment is to minimize unrealistic pressures on body image. This is because images that have gone through retouched advertising are deemed to be manipulated forms of advertising. What this means is that Norway deems that the average advertorials have deviated too far away from actual reality, especially in terms of standard of beauty.
Retouched advertising would include things like editing or enhancing certain body parts. Examples ranges from making lips look bigger and fuller to making bodies look slimmer or bigger.
Influencers Are Supportive
Influencers themselves, are welcoming this new regulation.
‘We need this law’
-Madeleine Pedersen, 26, an Instagram influencer from Moss in Norway
Ms Pederson shares with Radio 1 Newsbeat that it is “about time” the rules were changed. She also hopes the law will discourage the younger generation from comparing themselves to unrealistic images. While Pederson has used lightings and angles to create her images, she has not used an app to digitally alter her physical appearance.
The law is a step in the right direction in terms of cultivating healthy attitudes towards a person’s body. However, if it is trying to address the negative impacts that social media has on the mental health of youths, perhaps more needs to be done.
Changes To Instagram
Instagram has been facing increasing backlash and pressure from the public to curb the anxiety that its young users face on its platform. To address this, the platform has recently provided the option of hiding the likes count. It also has introduced a label at the top of the screen to display if a post is using an augmented reality filter. However, these new changes have not been implemented worldwide and are still in this beta versions.
Nonetheless, we still applaud Norway for initiating this law and introducing tougher regulations on advertisers. While this will not put an end to image editing works, it will certainly provide accountability and honestly in advertising collaterals.
