The National Audiovisual Council (CNA) issued the first decision to eliminate a video for masked advertising. Specifically this is a podcast episode “Home to Măruţă”, where actress Carmen Tanase and plastic doctor Dana Mircioiu, who promoted weight loss products, were invited.
The CNA will require the elimination of the episode from the online environment. Photo: YouTube video capture
The case came to the attention of the CNA following a complaint from a viewer, who noticed that the Podcast was made unmarked to the NUPO product. The complaint claimed that both the guests and the moderator constantly praised the weight loss products, without explicitly mentioning the commercial character of the message, informs the media page.
After analyzing some fragments, Vice President CNA, Valentin Jucan, concluded that the material contains masked advertising, thus violating the audiovisual law on commercial communications. He proposed to issue an order to eliminate the content, a proposal that was unanimously voted on. The decision will be communicated to YouTube, which will have to eliminate the material considered illegal from the platform.
Podcast’s guests and host promoted weight loss products. Photo: YouTube video capture
At the same time, the CNA will issue an information on the provisions of the Regulation on digital services (DSA), considering that the forum supervises compliance with the legislation and in the video content published on the Internet.
Monica Gubernat, CNA member, stressed that “He cannot tell me Mr. Măruţă that he does not have the experience of publicity, placing products. Let’s make a special communication for Mr. Măruţă, we are a bit tired. Who is of good faith, he knows very well what the legislation is.”
The position of the Podcastului team “Home La Măruţă”
Cătălin Măruță’s team reacted, saying that he will implement additional measures to ensure better delimitation between the editorial content and any form of advertising.
“Team Podcastului “Home La Măruţă” strictly comply with all legal and industry standards regarding the editorial and advertising content. We have always achieved the promotion activities transparent to the public and it was never our intention to make any material that does not comply with the regulations in force.
In order to demonstrate our commitment to transparency and compliance, we will implement additional measures to ensure better delimitation between the editorial content and any form of commercial promotion.
We want to offer our public quality materials, while respecting all the requirements imposed by the authorities and good practices in the industry ”, It is shown in a message sent to the media page.
