Former Love Island contestants Eve and Jessica Gale have been ordered to refrain from publishing Instagram posts which mislead people over the risks involved in trading cryptocurrency.
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority said the twins, which appeared on the UK reality show in 2020, had “trivialised investment in cryptocurrency”.
An Instastory posted by Eve in June 2022 featured a video where she said: “Hey guys. So I just wanted to introduce you to a girl called Elizabeth who I recently met on my travels and she works in crypto. So saving and investing, and she literally breaks it down and makes it so much easier to understand. Teaches you guys how to make money from your phone in such an easy way. So I would definitely recommend. If you guys are interested all you have to do is send her a DM and tell her I sent you.”
A similar post by Jessica saw her direct followers to Elizabeth O’Donell’s account and say: “Just quickly me and Eve have just been introduced to someone in Mykonos. She was so lovely. Her name is Elizabeth. She has introduced us to the world of crypto. So I knew nothing about this before but I was honestly blown away at how quickly her business has grown. It is basically a super quick, easy way of making extra money from your phone.”
The ASA upheld claims that the ad was “misleading” and “irresponsible”.
O’Donell had sent the twins a brief and a script which explained what they should say and do for the ad. They were asked to follow the script in a chatty and organic style.
She also sent them examples of other influencers promoting her services and that reassured them she had worked with influencers and social promotions before. She did not mention the risks of cryptocurrency, and the previous examples also did not highlight that.
The Gales said O’Donell was responsive, appeared genuine and paid on time and so they had no reason to be concerned about her.
O’Donell did not provide a substantive reply to the ASA’s enquiries, the regulator said.
“We considered the ads were addressed to a general audience who were unlikely to have any specialist knowledge of investing in cryptoassets,” said the regulator. “In the absence of any other information to the contrary, we considered that consumers would interpret the overall impression from the ads to mean that investment in cryptoassets was simple and risk free, even to those consumers who had only limited knowledge of cryptoassets.”
The ASA said the twins could not post the crypto ads – which did include #Ad – in this form again, but they have not been barred from promoting digital assets in future advertisements on social media.
Ahead of new legislation which will give the Financial Conduct Authority the power to treat crypto ads like other financial promotions, the ASA has attempted to raise awareness that social media influencers’ posts on the subject should be treated with caution.