The FTC Has Confirmed That Sunday Riley Faked Product Reviews

[itscarin]

Theres an article on Jezebel about the FTC findings for the Sunday Riley fake review scandal. It’s amazing to see all the speculation confirmed. 

“According to the FTC, the company’s managers and even company founder Sunday Riley herself posted fake reviews of the skincare line’s products on Sephora’s website using “fake accounts created to hide their identity.” And while the FTC press release doesn’t quite say it so baldly, managers also forced, or “requested,” employees to write fake reviews as well.”

The FTC report includes the following gem:

“This settlement sends the wrong message to the marketplace. Dishonest firms may come to conclude that posting fake reviews is a viable strategy, given the proposed outcome here. Honest firms, who are the biggest victims of this fraud, may be wondering if they are losing out by following the law. Consumers may come to lack confidence that reviews are truthful.”

The crazy part is that Sunday Riley does make some really good products. I’d be lost without the SR CEO moisturizer right now. Good Genes is also a standout product. Reading about the level of dishonesty that took place is unsettling. 

Did anyone else see this article?!

Update 10/24: The original thread on BIC where the SR email was posted (concerning instructions on how to post fake reviews) - https://community.sephora.com/t5/Skincare-Aware/Sunday-Riley-Fake-Reviews/td-p/4245507

[tinazhang718]

agree! 

[itscarin]

@Suneila The sad thing is they’re not the only company that does pulls this kind of stunt. Even here on the message boards I’ve seen posts about a brand (olaplex) which appear to be part of an orchestrated effort to influence the community by posting several overwhelming positive posts using accounts that do nothing but heap praise on this particular brand. It just goes to show how powerful social media. 

[pocketvenus]

@itscarinThere was an account posting here with professional photos promoting Commodity from someone whose IG account and Sephora profile stated they were a brand ambassador and a "Seph fragrance something or other" but this was never disclosed in their posts. Like, there was a full out thread of them and the Commodity brand account having a back and forth about how great Commodity is as if there was never any professional/transactional relationship 😠

I marked as many posts as I could as spam and reported them with explanations, but nothing much came of that. They basically disappeared from BIC after Commodity's last new release but popped back up again when Commodity was discontinued and the goal was to clear out remaining units. At that point, I publicly called them out. They actually fessed up that there was about a one month break between when they were formally representing the company and when they started posting this promotional stuff. I thought that was a pretty deceptive way to skirt around the public's expectations for disclosure. I found it upsetting, actually. REally taking advantage of us. People come to BIC for honesty and transparency.

[itscarin]

@pocketvenus That’s disappointing. I’m willing to bet this practice is more common than not. I stopped following a lot of you tubers and grammers because I know they’re getting paid for everything. After the make up geek / jaclyn hill debacle the whole beauty influencer scene has become very off putting for me. The influencers I used to follow, I just can’t stomach them anymore. Every day it’s a new holy grail product from them. 🙄 

[pocketvenus]

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@itscarin wrote:

Every day it’s a new holy grail product from them. 🙄 

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Ha ha, ikr, that's why I stopped too.

I do like how online platforms have opened doors for marginalized people, but to what end? Now everyone can see themselves represented as corporate shills, is that really what we want greater representation to look like?

On top of the sponsored reviews, the common practice of mixing up paid product reviews with the sharing of very intimate details about their personal lives is really uncomfortable. It's like watching a person commodify their entire life and identity. And it's always female influencers online that are expected to do this, to bare their emotional lives to millions of total strangers! @itscarin