In July, Dispatch revealed that unexposed advertising is used on celebrities' YouTube channels. There is a popular lingo, "bought by myself," which means that a certain product or program that is used is not for advertising purposes. An influencer said that her goods are all bought by herself. However, due to the report that Dispatch did, the fact that she gained 30 million won is revealed. Since she is a very influential stylist, a lot of people trusted her fashion items. Therefore, she is still under fire. This event is just a signal gun that announces the beginning of the advertising controversy.

▲ The part of the news that revealed unfair advertising

On August 4th, a Youtuber named Cham PD disclosed other Youtubers who are advertising products without exposing it by YouTube live. He was drunk, so after that, he wrote apology words and posted a video. After his life, a lot of YouTubers gave explanations. Among them, there were even very famous and popular streamers.

▲ Cham PD`s apology words.

With the present law, if a Youtuber's unexposed advertising is revealed, advertisers will only be punished. According to Article 17 of the Display Advertisement Act, advertisers who do unfair advertising or let others do that can be sentenced to less than two years in prison or be fined up to 150 million won. As such, there is no law clause that can punish Youtubers who do unfair advertising. However, starting on September 1st, 2020, YouTube streamers should write the word, "advertisement," in Korean in the title and subtitles at the beginning and the end of their videos.

▲ A document that announces the law about unfair advertising

Advertising unfairly is and infringement of consumer rights. People should be smart consumers and buy what they really need, not persuaded by advertisement.

August 9th, 2020

by An So-mi