Augmented Reality: a new legal frontier for marketing?
One important question to ask is: how will advertising regulations apply to these virtual or altered environments?
With brands eager to engage with consumers in authentic, non-intrusive and natural ways, increased focus has been given in recent years to the need to distinguish between editorial content and advertising.
Rule 2 of the CAP code requires that marketing communications (i.e. advertisements) are ‘obviously identifiable as such’. It also states that advertisements must make clear their commercial content, if that is not obvious from the context. The basic rationale for these rules is that consumers should know when they’re being advertised to.
There is no hard-and-fast rule about how paid-for content should be identified, and the ASA has referred to the ‘technical quirks of each platform’ being relevant to the point at which a brand should identify an advertisement, and how they should do so.
The ASA has previously recommended that social influencers signify their commercial relationship with a particular brand by including ‘#ad’ to posts on Twitter, or an ‘ad’ identifier placed directly on top of an image on Instagram.
Until specific guidance and rulings are given on the use of these technologies for advertising purposes, brands should assume that the ASA will apply the same rules and standards that it has applied to any other form of advertising.
See the full story here: https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2017/nov/07/augmented-reality-new-frontier-marketing/