The Advertising Standards Agency has banned two social media posts shared by the brand Skinny Tan, in which it claims the public are being 'mislead'.
The images, originally taken by influencer Elly Norris, were called out for using beauty filters which gave the blogger the appearance of having a darker, more tanned skin - which many may have believed was a result of the product.
Elly shared two stories about the Skinny Tan products with her 23,000 Instagram followers, both of which were re-shared on Skinny Tan's own Instagram.
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The ASA said content with filters could be "misleading" to the public, even if the name of the filter was visible on the post itself.
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Given that the filtered images included captions which gushed of how "impressed" and "obsessed" Elly was with the product, the ASA reasoned "consumers would expect to experience similar results to Ms Norris' appearance in the ads."
"We considered that the use of filters in ads was not inherently problematic, but that advertisers of cosmetic products needed to take particular care not to exaggerate or otherwise mislead consumers regarding the product advertised," the advertising body went on to explain.
In response, Skinny Tan said it didn't think filter was intended to be misleading or to exaggerate how well their products were, but agreed to be more careful in future, when sharing influencer content.
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The brand added that while Elly was gifted the product, it was not a paid for advert. Influencer Elly, who shared the snaps with in-app filter called "Perfect Tan" by Bianca Petry, also confirmed she hadn't meant to mislead anybody.
"The ads must not appear again in the form complained about," ASA said. "We told Skinny Tan and Ms Norris not to apply beauty filters to photos which promoted beauty products if such filters were likely to exaggerate the effect the product was capable of achieving."
Influencer Cinzia Baylis-Zullo was also mentioned by the ASA in a similar ruling, after promoting a product for the brand Tanologist (owned by We Are Luxe Ltd) while using a filter.
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Cinzia shared the video to her 350,000 followers using the "Yourbeauty by giorgiopivaa_" filter, which made her skin look darker.
Responding to the criticism, Baylis-Zullo and We Are Luxe Ltd said the ad was only supposed to show how to use the product, rather than how effective it was or the results of the tan.
However, ASA said it was reasonable for viewers to expect that her appearance would be as a result of the product, seeing as she told fans she had been using it for a while.
Much like in Elly's case, the advertising body said the tan had been "misleadingly exaggerated" in the image and warned against them doing so again.
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It comes as 29-year-old make-up artist and model Sasha Pallari, from Weston-super-Mare, called out the use of filters in social media advertising, and urged influencers to be more open about when they've edited a snap before promoting it.
She set up a campaign called #filterdrop in July last year, where she said it should be compulsory for influencers to speak out about the filters they use on their snaps.
And it built such momentum that the issue was soon being spoken about across the internet, with fellow influencers and even MPs speaking out to spread the message.
Speaking to the BBC, Sarah said she was "over the moon" at the ASA's latest ruing.
"I feel like the detrimental effect this is having on social media users has finally been taken seriously and this is a huge step in the right direction for how filters are used and the way cosmetics are advertised online," she told the network.
She said she was pushed to take action after receiving "daily" messages from "every day" women who felt they couldn't match up to the beauty standards often set out online.
Featured Image Credit: Skinny Tan