‘Love Island’ Twins Scolded by UK Regulator for ‘Irresponsible’ Crypto Ads on Instagram

The UK’s advertising regulator today warned “Love Island” stars, the Gale twins, from posting “irresponsible” cryptocurrency investment ads. 

Social media influencers Eve and Jessica Gale, who starred in the popular British reality TV show in 2020, both posted Instagram stories promoting a crypto investment scheme, according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

One of the stories, posted in June by Jessica Gale, told her nearly one million followers that a friend had introduced “the world of crypto” and it had been “basically a super quick, easy way of making extra money from your phone,” the ASA said. 

The twins, who combined have 1.7 million followers on Instagram, encouraged their followers in two separate stories to reach out to another account where they could “find out more.” 

But following a complaint, the ASA concluded that the ads were irresponsible—and warned the influencers from posting such material again. 

If an advertiser breaks ASA rules following a warning, the ASA can then refer them to Trading Standards, a UK local government service, which can then take legal action, such as fines. 

“The ads must not appear again in the form complained about,” the regulator said, adding that future posts by the twins should “not trivialize the investment in cryptoassets.”

“We also told them to ensure that their future ads made sufficiently clear that the value of investments in cryptoassets were variable and could go down as well as up and that cryptoasset was unregulated,” noted the ASA. 

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority last month said it was working on rules on how to deal with crypto marketing.