Four Influencers Caught for False Advertising Claiming "3kg Weight Loss in 2 Weeks"

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] #. Influencer Jeon, who has 1 million followers, posted a review on her Instagram about a product effective for constipation, which could be mistaken as a health functional food. She claimed "Successfully lost weight from 55kg to 52kg in about two weeks," "I go to the bathroom 3 to 4 times a day after taking it," and "I was able to maintain my weight even after eating late-night snacks," thereby misleading consumers with false advertisements before being caught.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (Commissioner Lee Eui-kyung) announced on the 28th that it had identified four influencers like Jeon and three distribution specialized sales companies who intentionally and repeatedly made false and exaggerated advertisements promoting diet and edema removal on Instagram, online shopping malls, and other platforms.

This announcement is the result of a focused analysis on products caught for false and exaggerated advertising related to diet promotion in the second half of last year, identifying influencers and companies who deliberately and repeatedly deceived consumers without correcting violations.

The main violations include ▲using hashtags on Instagram to claim disease prevention and treatment effects (1 case) ▲unfair advertising using personal experience reviews (1 case) ▲posting unfair advertisements on Instagram and selling products on their own shopping malls (2 cases) ▲advertising general foods as health functional foods causing misunderstanding or confusion (2 cases) ▲violations of health functional food advertising review results (1 case), among others.

Influencers engaged in unfair advertising by using hashtags, personal experience reviews, or operating their own malls. Distribution companies were caught for causing misunderstanding or confusion by advertising general foods as health functional foods or violating health functional food advertising review results.

An influencer with over 100,000 followers used hashtag (#) keyword searches on Instagram to link to promotional products. They used specific keywords such as ‘#constipation’, ‘#smoothbowelmovement’, ‘#diet’, ‘#antioxidant’, etc., claiming disease prevention and treatment effects for constipation or diet effects, which could be mistaken as health functional foods.

Influencers also deceived consumers by posting their own or followers’ experience reviews. Examples include “Lost about 3kg of body fat in one month,” “Saw effects on the second day, wondering if this was old feces~,” “Went to the bathroom 4 times on the first day,” along with photos showing ‘eye edema reduction ([day of surgery], [2-3 days], [one week])’.

An influencer operating a shopping mall was caught for unfair advertising on their Instagram instead of their own shopping mall. They mainly used expressions like ‘edema removal’, ‘smooth bowel movement diet’, ‘bowel movement aid’, posted experience reviews, announced joint purchase dates, and sold the products through the shopping mall.

One distribution specialized sales company used expressions such as ‘Should I try dieting with this too?’, ‘diet snack, food’, ‘body fat reduction’ on a candy product, which is a general food, causing consumers to mistake it for a health functional food. Another company violated review results by adding unreviewed content like ‘Freedom Cafe Korea No.1 Award’ in banner ads for health functional food advertisements, advertising differently from the reviewed content.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety plans to continuously monitor various social networking services (SNS) such as YouTube and Facebook and strongly sanction habitual violators through administrative measures and criminal charges.

The Ministry warned, "Even if you do not sell the product directly, anyone including influencers, YouTubers, bloggers, and advertising agencies who post or use photos, videos, or experience reviews containing false or exaggerated advertisements can face criminal penalties."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.