Today celebrities have a big influence on their admirers, and products or services that they share arouse the interest of those people. Today one can often see that celebrities may share recommendations on their social media accounts. That is an effective kind of advertisement because celebrities have a big number of followers. According to the Endorsements text, there is a difference between traditional celebrity endorsements and social media celebrity endorsements. In traditional media, there is a fine print or disclaimer that makes it clear to the viewers that the celebrity was paid for the advertisement. However, celebrities on social media do not always point out whether it is paid endorsement or not. Today social media turned into a massive platform for advertising and promotion of different products or services. Such posts with endorsements have a big influence on social media users as on consumers.
The most recent social media celebrity endorsement that I have seen was Kylie Jenner promoting hair vitamins on Instagram. There was no disclaimer that it was a paid advertisement; thus, it is not clear if the blogger really liked the product or was just paid for the endorsement. I think that the endorsement, however, was commercial, and she received money for that. According to Federal Trade Commission, celebrities should indicate and have a disclaimer for the paid promotion, and recently thus, rules have been applied to social media users as well (Campbell & Grimm, 2019). I think that in order for the endorsements to be handled legally, those people who get paid for the promotion need to indicate that they were paid to make the advertisement. However, it is not always possible to trace if celebrities recommend something of their own will or just to get paid.
Reference
Campbell, C., & Grimm, P. E. (2019). The challenges native advertising poses: Exploring potential federal trade commission responses and identifying research needs.Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 38(1), 110-123.