TOWIE star Lauren Goodger has Instagram post banned over failure to mark it as a paid advert

The Only Way Is Essex star Lauren Goodger has seen one of her Instagram posts banned after failing to say it was an advert.

The post from 4 March for user @hannahd.fx, which was promoting a foreign exchange tip service, showed a screenshot of a Whatsapp conversation which contained purported trading profits and a message that said “£1,730 in the last two days”.

A caption under the image read: “Let me introduce you all to @hannahd.fx. She is a Forex trader who sends out trades everyday which take under 5 minutes to place. Everyone who joins her team, receives a FREE Forex beginners [sic] course worth £150, to help you learn while you earn.

“She has been consistently profitable and has the freedom to work anywhere in the world. If you want to start 2021 right and earn a second source of income, message @hannahd.fx on Instagram to join her team and to get started.”

Someone who saw the post complained that it was clearly not identifiable as an advert, and that the claims about making profit were misleading.

“Persons unknown”, who had been trading as @hannahd.fx told the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) that they would make sure that they would not break any rules in future posts.

Goodger said that @hannahd.fx had sent her the script and told her what should be included in the post’s caption, adding she had been paid for doing so.

She also told the ASA that she would make sure any future posts were marked as adverts if they needed to be.

The ASA said: “We understood that Ms Goodger was promoting @hannahd.fx’s foreign exchange trading tips service. However, we noted that the post did not feature the label ‘#ad’, or a similar, prominent identifier.

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“In the absence of clear and prominent identifiers, we concluded the post was not obviously identifiable as marketing communication.”

The advertising body added that their was no evidence to back up the claims about profits, ruling they were misleading.

The ASA concluded: “The ad must not appear again in the form complained about. We told person(s) unknown trading as @hannahd.fx and Lauren Goodger to ensure that their ads were obviously identifiable as marketing communications – for example by including clear and prominent identifiers – and that they did not make profitability claims for foreign exchange tips services unless they held evidence to that effect.”