Why Are Influencers Being Banned from Sharing Health Product Testimonials?

It'll be the latest change to your social feeds.

If there always seemed to be something iffy about influencers spilling their heart and soul to sell you vitamins, Australia’s medicine regulator has just confirmed—it kinda is.

The new Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code will crack down on the advertising of medicines, medical devices, vitamins, and cosmetics through testimonials, if the influencer is being paid or incentivised.

A testimonial is when someone testifies to a personal experience of their own, and are often used as a selling point. For example, “I used this acne cream and all my pimples went away within weeks!”

So this new code means that, regardless of whether your fave seems to genuinely be in love with the product, their testimonial is prohibited if they’re receiving “valuable consideration” aka money, gifts, services or incentives to advertise the product.

Why is this ban happening?

The Therapeutic Goods Administration argues “advertising of therapeutic goods requires a higher ethical standard than may apply for advertising of ordinary consumer goods because consumers rely on therapeutic goods for their health.”

“It can be difficult for a consumer to determine the appropriateness of a therapeutic good for their particular circumstances,” they say, “so it is important that promotional material is truthful, balanced and not misleading.”

We wrote an article on parasocial relationships, which can lead to social media users trusting influencers as though they are close friends. If an influencer makes a strong testimonial about a product, this could easily influence someone to buy it. That’s why the TGA is cracking down.

What are the new guidelines exactly?

The new Code is currently being encouraged, but won’t be mandatory until July 1.

The TGA has indicated the rules will also apply to posts that are already live. That means there’ll be a whole lot of posts being taken down in a coupla months.

As the world grapples with the influence of social media in our lives, many new terms and rules are coming into effect. You can read our article on ‘wokefishing’ here, or check out more articles on social media!

Header image: Canva.