The other day I came across an article on Twitter about advertising and the Kardashians by Contently, a technology company that helps brands create content. After reading the article, I was really intrigued, probably because I am a Public Relations major, and on my lazy days, I may or may not binge-watch "Keeping Up With The Kardashians."

The Contently article led me to TINA.org, or Truth In Advertising. If you are a follower of any of the Kardashian/Jenner ladies on social media, like I am, you see the hundreds of their posts, many of which are sponsored, such as FitTea, Puma, Calvin Klein and Sugar Bear Hair, each and every week. If a post is sponsored, it means that the person posting the picture or promotion is being paid to do so. Combined, the Kardashian and Jenner clan have a following of almost 300 million followers, resulting in posts that are viewed by consumers worldwide. However, the main issue at hand, according to the TINA investigation, is that FTC, or Federal Trade Commission, guidelines are in violation. Disclosure is required for sponsored posts, meaning the Kardashian clan has to specify somewhere in the post that it is a paid advertisement.

According to TINA, on August 17, the organization sent the Kardashian/Jenner family a letter, notifying them of their deceptive marketing campaigns. Additionally, TINA contacted the companies whose products the family members promoted on Instagram. TINA specified to the Kardashian/Jenner clan, that if the illegal posts were not rectified by August 24, the organization would file a complain with the FTC. After the deadline expired, only about 20 percent of the posts were modified, including "#ad" in the posts. However, multiple posts still remained undisclosed, so TINA filed a complaint with the FTC.

As stated by TINA, in the FTC guidelines, if someone is paid to promote a product or has a material connection with a company, they must disclose that relationship since it could affect a consumer’s opinion about the product.

In my eyes, I always see the posts as advertisements, disclosure or not. However, the law is the law, and the situation made me highly aware of the slight, innocent errors that can be made, and also cause a huge legal problem.

Hopefully, the Kardashian/Jenner ladies and their partner companies will soon start to 'keep up' with #ad.