Learn from the Taisho Pharmaceutical example!
Pitfalls of stealth marketing regulations and countermeasures

On November 2024, 11, the Consumer Affairs Agency issued a corrective order against Taisho Pharmaceutical's advertising of its supplement "NMN Taisho," stating that the advertising constituted stealth marketing (commonly known as "stealth marketing").
In response to this, Taisho PharmaceuticalA news release explaining the outline and background of this incidentOn December 12th,News release titled "Apology and Notice"is published.

Since the stealth marketing regulations began on October 2023, 10, three orders for measures have been issued, including this case.
What was the problem this time? What should I be careful of in the future?Attorney Miyuki EbisawaWe will explain in detail.

First of all, what are stealth marketing regulations?

Before we get into this case, let's briefly review the regulations on stealth marketing.

To put it very simply, the target of stealth marketing regulations is "displays that are deemed difficult for the general consumer to distinguish from the display of a business," in other words, "Display (advertising) of a business entity that appears to be a display of a third party unrelated to the business entity".

So, in what cases can it be considered "business display (advertising)"?When a business operator is involved in deciding the content to be displayed"It has been with.

Like thisIf the display above constitutes stealth marketing, the business must make it clear that it is an advertisement by adding hashtags such as "#PR" or "#advertising."


For more information on stealth marketing regulations, please see this article.
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What was the problem in this case?

Now let's take a look at this case.

Taisho Pharmaceutical gifted the supplement "NMN Taisho" to the influencer and asked him to post about it on social media, on the condition that they pay him a fee. In June 2023, the influencer posted about the product on social media, properly adding "#PR" etc.

However.
Subsequently, from April to May 2024, Taisho Pharmaceutical excerpted some of the influencer posts and posted them on its website, removing markings such as "#PR" (see figure below).

(Source)Consumer Affairs Agency websiteMore excerpt

It was this very statement on their website that was determined to be in violation of stealth marketing regulations.
What could have gone wrong?

As I mentioned earlier, the target of stealth marketing regulations is "displays that are deemed difficult for the general consumer to distinguish as being from a business's display."If the average consumer can tell that the product is a business's product, it is not stealth marketing.It will be said.
For example, the content of a company's official website is generally not considered to be stealth marketing, since even the average consumer would understand that it is an advertisement since it is an official website.
The Consumer Affairs Agency's operational standards are"Implementation standards for 'labels that are difficult for general consumers to distinguish as being from business displays'"This is also explained in the Operational Standards.

However, there are exceptions to this.
According to the operational standards,Even on official websites, if there is a risk that consumers may misunderstand that the display is not that of a business, for example, if a display appears to be an objective third-party opinion but in fact the display is at the request or instruction of a business, the business is required to clearly indicate that the display is an advertisement.
In addition, the Consumer Affairs Agency has publishedQ&A about Stealth Marketing" also explains that it is not appropriate to post requests made to influencers on your company's website as "customer testimonials," and that in such cases it should be clearly indicated that the request was made to the influencer.

If you look at the display on the official website in question, you can see an Instagram post (or what appears to be an Instagram post) by an influencer, with the eye-catching phrase "Gaining popularity on Instagram." If an average consumer were to see this, they could mistakenly think it was an objective post by an influencer, even though it is Taisho Pharmaceutical's official website. Therefore, the Consumer Affairs Agency has determined that this type of display falls under "displays that are deemed difficult for average consumers to distinguish as being from a business entity."

What should I be careful of in the future?

The influencer's post in the first place was correctly marked with "#PR" etc., and if Taisho Pharmaceutical had displayed this post on its own website by embedding it, the "#PR" part would have been displayed properly and it would not have violated the stealth marketing regulations.

Personally, I feel that this case could have been prevented if the operational standards and Q&A for stealth marketing regulations had been properly read.
If there are people who think that "it doesn't amount to stealth marketing because it's an official website or official social media account," we hope that this case will serve as an opportunity to reconsider that perception, and that they will also be cautious when introducing posts from commissioned influencers on their own website or elsewhere.

If you would like to know more about this case, please click here.
Consumer Affairs Agency News Release
Taisho Pharmaceutical "Regarding the Order for Actions by the Consumer Affairs Agency"

【2024.12.18】