YouTube stars face authenticity test

YouTube stars have built large audiences on the internet by projecting themselves as a new type of celebrity. But the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority let in some overdue sunlight on the tensions that exist between vloggers’ commercial lives and the way they present themselves to their subscribers.

The regulator criticised a campaign involving the US snacks group Mondelez, whose brands include Cadbury. A particular concern was that the campaign videos were very much in the style of the regular content posted by the vloggers. Viewers would not know they had been paid to take part.