Digital Market, Bloggers, and Trendsetters: The New World of Advertising Law

Mariacristina Reale

doi:10.3390/laws8030021

Abstract

The importance of digital marketing is continuously growing, at least in the present economic phase. Within this sector, fashion bloggers play a crucial role, which reflects the relevance of fashion on an economic and a social level, as already highlighted in Georg Simmel’s pioneering study. New communication opportunities made available by the development of digital technologies shed more light on this phenomenon. One of the main concerns is the need to guarantee the transparency and the correctness of commercial communications shared through social media in order to ensure the consumers’ full freedom of choice. However, can traditional rules on advertising be considered sufficient, or is there a need for ad hoc rules? Can consumers’ protection be reconciled with other values such as the creative freedom of advertisers and, more generally, the freedom of expression? Thus far, interventions by self-regulatory bodies and independent authorities, both at national and international levels, have proven to be effective, even if more “classic” regulatory interventions may occur in the future. After a short reference to the literature concerning fashion as a social phenomenon, the contribution focuses on the main solutions adopted in Italy and in Europe.

Highlights

The development of digital technologies has opened new opportunities on an economic level but has determined the appearance of new rights and the consequent need to protect them.As regards marketing techniques, the advent of the Internet has introduced a veritable revolution, prompting companies to rethink their methods of interaction with suppliers and customers and build more solid and lasting relationships with them1
In 2015, the European Commission launched a strategy for the Digital Single Market, identifying a series of political priorities to allow people, consumers, and businesses to benefit fully from the opportunities offered by the Internet and digital technologies and to bring down regulatory and administrative barriers that could prevent the achievement of these purposes2
In light of the abovementioned factors, which are apparently hindering regulatory actions perceived as too rigid, a solution may come from soft law tools, an expression that refers to a variety of instruments such as guidelines, codes of conduct, private standards, etc

Summary

Introduction

The development of digital technologies has opened new opportunities on an economic level but has determined the appearance of new rights and the consequent need to protect them. One of the main features of the so-called digital marketing consists precisely of exploiting Internet infrastructures and technologies in order to create an interactive relationship with consumers, understand their needs and desires, and succeed in promoting products or services to satisfy them This worldwide phenomenon has imposed a “new dimension” in the process of implementation of the single market within the European Union. Alongside with the transformations of the social structure, fashion has gradually evolved from a class phenomenon to a mass phenomenon that interacts with the most diverse sectors of modern societies It interprets and often anticipates their changes and interconnects with other “mass-media systems” that have promoted its spreading, in such “classic” tools as magazines, photography, or cinema, and in marketing and advertising (Cafelato 2007). By Simmel and constantly confirmed by a plethora of studies devoted to the expansion of this sector as well as to the growth of its turnover, with reference to the clothing sector

Fashion and Social Media

A Viable Solution

Some Examples in the UK and USA

Advertising Self-Regulation at European Level

Findings

Conclusions