Stars of the ITV show Love Island were reportedly given taxpayers’ money to tell their Instagram followers that the Covid-19 Test and Trace scheme is ‘free, quick and vital to stopping the spread of the virus’.
The ITV2 reality stars, including Shaughna Phillips, 26, Josh Denzel, 29, and Chris Hughes, 27, are all said to have been paid to promote the testing campaign by Number 10.
The influencers used hashtags including ‘#letsgetback’ and ‘#gettested’ for the social media posts in which they shared throwback pictures of ‘nights out’ with friends.
Downing Street has so far refused to reveal how much they had spent on the ads involving social media ‘influencers’ and bloggers, according to The Sunday Mirror.
However, a social media expert told The Sunday Mirror that such influencers would typically command a fee of around ‘£5,000 to £10,000’ per ad post.
The influencers were reportedly told in a brief to ‘heap praise’ on the NHS but were told not to ‘criticise the Government or its guidance’.
The stars allegedly face an Advertising Standards Agency probe after paid-for posts should be marked as ‘#ad’.
The Mirror has claimed that the posts have only been marked with ‘#ads’ since the issue has been raised.
The Govt are paying Z list people to perpetuate the lies. Tip of the iceberg.The media has been entirely bought by Govt propaganda.Paid for of course by our taxes
I do hope Shaughna Phillips,Josh Denzel, and Chris Hughes enjoy the £ they made for thishttps://t.co/G1RQcyAAfQ
— Simon Dolan #KBF (@simondolan) August 30, 2020
Many on social media voiced their concerns about how taxpayers’ money was being spent, @simondolan said: “The Govt are paying Z list people to perpetuate the lies. Tip of the iceberg. The media has been entirely bought by Govt propaganda.Paid for of course by our taxes
“I do hope Shaughna Phillips,Josh Denzel, and Chris Hughes enjoy the £ they made for this”.
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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