The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2023
Universal Music's TikTok post ruled an ad — '#soundad' wasn't enough of a label
A paid TikTok post pushing Elton John and Britney's remix carried '#soundad'. The ASA banned it: a hashtag is not an obvious ad label.
Universal Music · 2023-04
What happened
On 3 November 2022 influencer Tasha Ghouri posted a video montage of her day-to-day life on TikTok with 'Hold Me Closer' by Elton John and Britney Spears playing in the background. The caption read '#TinyDancer #HoldMeCloser soundad' and named the track as the Joel Corry Remix. The post was made under a contractual arrangement to promote the track.
EMI Records, a division of Universal Music Operations, said it was standard practice to ask influencers to attach a 'musicad' or 'soundad' tag, and cited over 450 million uses of those hashtags on TikTok as proof they were widely understood. Tasha Ghouri's representatives said 'soundad' in the first line of the caption was clear enough. TikTok said the video appeared to be branded content and its Branded Content disclosure tool should have been used.
On 19 April 2023 the ASA upheld the complaint: the post was not obviously identifiable as a marketing communication. '#soundad' was not a label a consumer would understand, and the deal was a paid placement. The post breached CAP rules 2.1, 2.3 and 2.4 and must not appear again in that form.
Why it happened
- A label meant for music platforms doesn't survive on TikTok — '#soundad' named the mechanism, not the ad.
- 450 million uses of a hashtag prove it is popular, not that anyone reads it as an ad.
- The post was contractual: the 'day in my life' video was a paid placement wearing a caption's costume.
- TikTok itself said its branded-content tool should have been used — the platform's own rule was the one broken.
The lesson
A disclosure label must be one consumers understand: Universal Music's paid TikTok post carried '#soundad' — the ASA ruled a music-industry hashtag is not an obvious ad label.
Aftermath
The ASA told Universal Music Operations and Tasha Ghouri to make future posts obviously identifiable as marketing, including with a clear and prominent identifier such as '#ad'.
Sources
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