Sophie Cachia has landed herself in hot water both with Ad Standards and a brand she was working with over the shadiness of a sponsored post.
The influencer, who has an advertising deal with tech accessories brand Cygnett, failed to make it clear that she was being paid to fang their products.
The Instagram Story featured Cachia holding up a charging cable with the text: “Found my baby!!! @cygnett Nobody charges my phone like this cord here.
“Whenever I lose it, it’s devastating (aka Bobby steals it for his iPad) I will neverrrrrrr go back to any other cord. Not spon, just simply life changing when you need your phone constantly & charged SO fast.”
In Cygnett’s response to Ad Standards, it said it “[have] an agreement with Sophie Cachia regarding paid brand endorsements on social media”, but that this post was shared “outside [Ms Cachia’s] paid agreement” with the brand and was “not included in the content calendar”.
It insisted that it was not “requested or supported in any way by Cygnett.”
According to , one of Cachia’s followers made a complaint to Ad Standards.
“Sophie is obviously getting paid to be an ongoing ambassador for this product/brand and should clearly display that it is a paid post,” the follower’s complaint read.
The watchdog determined that her post “did breach Section 2.7” of the AANA Code of Ethics, which requires advertisers to make it “clearly distinguishable” that a post is branded content.
Cygnett blamed the incident on Cachia, claiming the influencer uploaded the post without “prior approval” and insisted it is therefore not responsible.
The brand added, “If an influencer decides to post without permission or knowledge of a brand, why is the brand held responsible?”
The Ad Standards panel ruled that “the post was not clearly distinguishable as advertising.”
Not sure what the next steps are but something tells me Cygnett’s relationship with Sophie Cachia has ended as fast as her stint did.
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