Simone Anderson rose to fame when she documented a four-year weight loss journey including gastric sleeve surgery, removal of excess skin, a butt lift and breast enhancement. Photo / File
Simone Anderson rose to fame when she documented a four-year weight loss journey including gastric sleeve surgery, removal of excess skin, a butt lift and breast enhancement. Photo / File
A Facebook page selling second-hand clothing run by Kiwi influencer Simone Anderson is being investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority after a complaint.
The Herald understands the complaint relates to Simone's Second Hand Wardrobe, which has 10,768 members, where Anderson sells clothing and accessories gifted to her by fashion labels.
Anderson, an influencer on Instagram with 313,000 followers, shot to fame in 2015 after losing 92kg, which she documented on social media.
Now she makes a living posing on Instagram in gifted clothes and accessories for fashion brands and wholesalers who are trying to leverage recognition and sales from her celebrity endorsement.
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) chief executive Hilary Souter said the board would make a decision shortly.
The complaint fell under rule 2 of the Advertising Standards Code: whether the content was deemed advertising and if so whether the advertising is appropriately identified.
An ASA guidance note says ads are any message, in any medium that intend to influence the choice, opinion or behaviour of those it is addressed to.
Souter said advertisements in mainstream media were usually easily identifiable but digital media was not always obvious.
"With social media there's a whole lot of variables so it's those sorts of things the board will look at and if that's relevant to the complaint before them."
Simone Anderson's second-hand clothing sales Facebook page where the influencer sells clothing and accessories gifted to her. A complaint related to the page is being investigated. Photo / Supplied
In a social media decision the ASA released in May, a complaint was made about an Instagram story by former Bachelor New Zealand, Art Green, that showed him holding a Heineken beer bottle and nominating his friends.
The complainant said the hashtag "#sp" did not clearly indicate the content was paid for celebrity endorsement.
The advertiser, DB Breweries, said the content tagged "@heineken_NZ", featured the Heineken "Stay apart" campaign logo messaging, which DB believed most viewers would recognise as being an advertisement.
However it accepted the ad did not comply with its own internal standards and removed it.
"DB continues to work with, and educate, its influencers to ensure that they are aware of their obligations under the ASA guidelines and their responsibilities as an influencer engaged by DB."
Outspoken by Odd, the talent agency that represents Anderson, told the Herald: "While this is actively being investigated by the ASA board we have recommended Simone decline to comment".
A gifted t-shirt posted for sale on influencer Simone Anderson's private Facebook page after she posed in an identical one on Instagram. Photo / Supplied
This week on Instagram Anderson posed in a lime green Stolen Girlfriends Club T-shirt, currently for sale on the fashion label's website for $109.
She also listed an identical T-shirt for sale in the second-hand clothing Facebook group for $50. It sold almost immediately.
Anderson previously stated all proceeds of the sales on the site were donated to charity.
Stolen Girlfriends Club co-founder and creative director Marc Moore said if money from the sale of gifted Stolen Girlfriends Club clothing went to charity he would accept the undercutting of his brand.
"If that was actually the case I would be okay with it."
However Moore, who rarely uses influencers and did not gift Anderson a Sid and Nancy T-shirt, said if the money was not donated to charity he would be annoyed.
"If she's getting gifted stuff that's ours and selling it for less than half price it's a bit gutting. I'd be pretty disappointed and we'd have to put a stop to it.
"It's a hard one for us because we sell to a broad network of wholesale accounts throughout New Zealand and overseas and we can't control what our wholesale accounts are doing to promote their business."
The T-shirt was gifted to Anderson by a designer streetwear store and she tagged the store in the Instagram post.
The Herald tried to ask Anderson whether she had permission from gifters to on-sell the products and if she had proof of donations to charity but she did not respond.
