Grace Beverley has videos banned after breaking advertising rules with her brand TALA

Grace Beverley has officially broken advertising rules with six posts promoting her brand Tala, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled.

Back in November, influencer and founder of Tala Grace Beverley came under fire for supposed “illegal ad practices” where she promoted her brand without making clear she was the owner.

Grace responded by claiming her followers would be aware that she was the founder of Tala and that she was “synonymous” with the business. She also allegedly threatened a TikToker who brought the issue to attention with a defamation lawsuit.

But the ASA has ruled that she did in fact break advertising rules. The videos that have been banned were all promoting Tala products such as the puffer jacket.

Six of Grace’s videos have been banned from Instagram and TikTok after the AHA ruled that social media users who did not follow her and saw the videos would be unaware of her connection to the brand.

It said people would have to click through her profile to see the references to Tala and this “did not amount to sufficient disclosure for individual ads.”

Grace Beverley told The Tab: “I am respectful of the ASA’s work and acknowledge their recent decision regarding my social media posts discussing Tala, a business I founded.”

The watchdog said it had received more than 50 complaints about Grace’s posts not being clearly labelled as ads. The ASA told Grace and Tala that the ads must not appear again in their current form. It also said all future ads must be “obviously identifiable” by using hashtags such as #ad.

“This case is precedent-setting,” Miles Lockwood, director of complaints and investigations at the ASA said.

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Alice, who works in influencer marketing made a video calling out Grace and Tala’s advertising in November 2023. She called Grace Beverley the “queen of illegal ad practices” and was soon after forced to remove the video where she discussed her use of advertising.

But now after the new ASA ruling, Alice has made another video where she says: “In November last year I was threatened with a defamation lawsuit over a TikTok I posted. I received a very heavy-handed solicitor’s letter and had to take down three TikToks.” She then goes on to explain the new ruling and what it means.

“Influencers owe it to their audiences to be transparent with their communications.”

@aliceisgratified

Today was a landmark and precedent-setting day for Influencer-led business marketing disclosure #asa #addisclosure #influencermarketing #influencerindustry #creatorcommunity

♬ original sound – Alice – Creator Marketing

In Grace’s initial response to Alice’s claims, she questioned whether the same standards would be held to men and used Steven Bartlett as an example. But in her new video, Alice said: “The reason I was most upset with this situation was that accusation that I was a woman bringing down another woman for being a woman. I love women, I believe in the power of women, I want women to succeed.”

She finishes: “I am so pleased that this has been drawn to a close and obviously the decision was the right one.”

Grace Beverley told The Tab: “I am respectful of the ASA’s work and acknowledge their recent decision regarding my social media posts discussing Tala, a business I founded.

“I want to continue encouraging conversation, clarity and transparency on how business owners across industries can naturally talk about their own work online, in a way that distinctly differentiates from sponsored content.”

Tala added to BBC Newsbeat that it supported Grace’s comment and that the company “has always endeavoured to follow ASA guidance and we will continue to do so in the future”.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Grace Beverley responds to allegations of her ‘illegal ad practices’ with her brand TALA

• Influencer Grace Beverley criticised for asking followers to buy her products to fund her wedding

• ‘I’ve always liked making money’: Every revelation from Lydia Millen’s podcast interview

Featured images via Instagram.