Essex influencer Zara McDermott has had an Instagram post banned for failing to make it clear to viewers it was an ad.

The former Love Island contestant has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority for the post she made in January. 

McDermott's post for fashion retailer Missguided featured an image of McDermott in gym wear alongside a caption that stated “GUYS!!! Drop 2 of my @missguided edit is HERE!!!!. Even more styles, some different fabrics, and some new colours to add to the edit! Check out the Missguided website now!”.

Three complainants challenged whether the post was obviously identifiable as an ad.

Missguided said they did not sign the caption off and accepted it had not been correctly labelled as an ad.

Ms McDermott’s agent said that the omission of ad labels had been a mistake on Ms McDermott’s part and the caption had been amended.

The rulling said: "We acknowledged Missguided’s assertion that followers of Ms McDermott’s Instagram account were likely to be aware that there was a commercial relationship between her and Missguided based on her previous and subsequent posts.

"However, we understood that, because Ms McDermott’s profile was visible to the public, any posts she published could appear in search results and those posts could be viewed in isolation from her profile.

"That meant Instagram users who were not followers of Ms McDermott’s profile would be able to view the post."

It added: "We noted that Ms McDermott had said the post would be amended to include the identifier “#ad”.

"However, because, at the time of the complaint, the post did not include such an identifier, we considered that it was not obviously identifiable as a marketing communication and therefore concluded that it breached the Code."

The authority rules the ad must not appear again in the form complained about.