“I am the black sheep of the influencers”. The crusade against covert advertising by 'youtuber' Sézar Blue

One day in November, from bed, the

Sézar Blue published a

on Instagram with a blank photo as a “sign of protest”.

He was “sick,” he wrote, of seeing “disguised ads trying to make believe that these restaurants or products are amazing,” he wrote.

One of the 1,811 comments he received was from Pablo Cabezali, author of the YouTube channel

: "The time will come when you realize how enormously you have missed out," he said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sezar Blue (@sezarblue)

Sézar and Pablo are two of the main gastronomic

in Spanish.

They have collaborated for three years, published dozens of videos together, and their public break up caused a small tidal wave in the Spanish-language YouTube scene.

Both had just spent 20 days together doing Route 66 in the United States.

The conflict was not just over surreptitious advertising.

There were more reasons: "I was already burned for many personal reasons," Sézar Blue told EL PAÍS in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), where he lives.

“Nobody gets mad at a friend and doesn't talk to them again because just one thing happened,” he adds.

But surreptitious advertising is actually a thornier issue than a spat between friends.

The role of

in social networks is a problem that the Audiovisual Communication Law aspires to regulate soon in Spain, which the entire European Union is looking for ways to limit, which already has a Self-control code of conduct and which continues to occur every day. Without restrictions.

"Due to the rise of gastronomy in Spain, the role of

in the sector it is gaining relevance”, says Eva Chen, founder of the restaurant group La Pagoda.

“There are many very varied gastronomic profiles and they can play an important role in giving the place visibility and making it fashionable, especially for new openings,” she adds.

Of course it happens not only in the hospitality industry, but also in many other sectors, such as fashion, makeup or travel.

“Selling out for a plate of food is very sad, but there is no account with more than 50,000 followers [on Instagram] that has not done surreptitious advertising,” says Sézar Blue.

“I exploded with that blank

and was surprised that the discomfort was so widespread.

And if you raise that alarm, you become the black sheep of the

, nobody is going to hire you, ”he adds.

and

agencies know that mislabeling an ad is ethically dubious.

But today there is no law that prevents doing so or that clarifies how to mark it correctly.

"We can consider it immoral," says Alejandro Platero, a law professor at the University of Extremadura.

“But we cannot consider it illegal because there is no law or regulation that sanctions this activity of the

”, He explains.

Networks offer ways to tag content as “sponsored”, but these are often not used.

There is a widespread and unproven idea that algorithms punish these sponsored content because the networks already have their own ads.

The most common method today (for those who use it) is to add a tag in the description where it says #publi or #ad or #announcement, mixed with other

.

In long YouTube videos, the

can mention that the video is sponsored towards the end.

Contrary to traditional audiovisual media, where advertising has been regulated for years, on social networks it is not clear how to know if something is advertising.

War against the 'golfoodies'

The influencer

phenomenon

it's new.

And there are thousands of them.

While this surreptitious advertising has been going on for years, it hasn't always been so crude and obvious.

“I have not always thought like this, I have not always seen everything the same”, says Sézar Blue.

“I perfectly remember when we said: we should charge restaurants for what we do because it is advertising.

I was the first to say it, ”he adds.

Now he sees that surreptitious advertising affects the entire sector, including him: “They tell me, why are you doing and saying this now?

Well, because they put me in that bag.

Imagine that I am with a group of people on the street who are taking drugs and drinking alcohol, nobody is going to think that I do not take them.

I am in a restaurant recording and I hear another table saying that this one is already coming to be invited, to scrounge.

I listen to it and it poisons me”, says Sézar Blue,

”, from adding gulf and

.

The functioning of the networks is also different.

Sézar Blue lives, according to what he says, from what YouTube pays him.

And he lives well: "I already have two houses paid for and I don't collaborate with any restaurant," he says.

But, he adds, “how much more would you earn if you did?

Well, an additional 250,000 euros a year”.

Instagram, for its part, does not share its income with

: a large account on this social network must monetize itself.

This newspaper has verified the rates for an account with 150,000 followers: a photo costs 750 euros, and a video costs 900. The rates can of course vary, depending on the type and sector of

and the brand.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DINING WITH PABLO (@cenandoconpablo)

Pablo Cabezali, the

With whom Sézar Blue had the main controversy, he believes that these differences may be the origin of his former friend's crusade: "Sézar was one of my best friends, he was the person I talked to the most on social networks, we went on trips" , explains by phone to EL PAÍS.

“I have always been transparent with the income of the channel;

He bills 8,000 euros with YouTube and I bill 17,000 a month, a considerable difference... And I overtook him in subscribers at the time and they called me to be a jury in a stew contest, which is more his theme.

There has been envy and anger and he has not known how to carry it with sportsmanship because friendship is above work ”, he assures.

Those figures offered by Cabezali do not include what he earns from collaborations, which he says he does not know due in part to the amount of expenses his channel has.

Cabezali explains his case as one more example of how the surreptitious advertising scene is today: "The only thing that can be blamed on me is that I have published a lot of advertising on Instagram and I have not marked it as advertising," he explains.

"I've been doing this for four years and people can get angry that something is publicity, but under no circumstances have I thrown my values ​​down the drain or said that something is good without it."

He also explains that, "since all this happened" and to avoid "economic or legal problems" he adds a

of "collaboration" at the end of the publication.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ALBERTO_DELUNA (@alberto_deluna)

Alberto de Luna is another food

with almost 100,000 followers on Instagram, his main network.

De Luna has become famous for some of the negative reviews of him and for him posting the account at the end.

Like everyone, however, he has had to deal with publicity on his account.

“Seen from the outside it is very easy, but when brands start to write to you and you are interested in a product for itself, for the money they can pay you or for the positioning, and they do not want you to add that it is advertising, you have to see the case .

Sometimes it's not that easy,” he says.

De Luna tries to distinguish between products and restaurants, which is his main object of criticism: “I receive weekly emails from restaurants that I don't know at all and that ask to do a collaboration.

And I say my conditions: if I go and I don't like it, I will say so.

So everyone tells you no.

Maybe someone can play it.

When they invite me, I say so, because there are very few of them, ”she explains.

should tag their ads, but the

tough question is how do you prove a business deal with a restaurant if there is no contract or official payment?

“It's very swampy, gray terrain and often difficult to prove,” says De Luna, whose main job is a lawyer.

"They can force you to put that it is advertising, but when I upload something that is not advertising, how do the authorities know?"

There would be a way to catch the unsuspecting if hashtags became widespread

says Sézar Blue: the tax route.

“They should be more careful who pays and who receives because many of these payments are not formalized.

There is no contract or invoice.

You cannot go to a restaurant and put the

“Collaboration” and there is no bill involved”, he warns.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sezar Blue (@sezarblue)

The role of agencies in this world is also important.

Sézar Blue left his, which he shared with Cabezali.

"The bad thing about having an agency is that, obviously, they live off your advertising," says De Luna, who doesn't have one.

“Their interest is that your Instagram becomes a MilAnuncios.

They do not take care of your image so much and want volume.

In my case, I do everything for free, having a little income because certain brands pay you seems normal to me.

If a year I take 3,000 euros from brands and I invest that money to generate more content, perfect ”, he sums up.

Instead, Cabezali explains that he is the one who ultimately decides what he advertises, with two criteria: that both parties win and that he likes the product.

“Today I received a batch from a vegan healthy food company and I do not consume it and I have rejected the campaign.

Or a campaign for pizzas with cauliflower and they paid me 2,500 euros to make a 30-second video.

I bought it, I saw that I didn't like it, but that it was a normal pizza and not to be highly recommended, and I rejected it, and that for me to record that 30-second thing takes

”, he explains.

Regulation takes time

For now, all the regulation that can be reached is through the Audiovisual Communication Law of July 2022, which regulates advertising.

The entry into force of this law for

is pending a clear establishment of who is and who is not.

Sézar Blue wrote to the main Spanish parties on Instagram with his complaints.

PSOE and PP answered him with a pre-established response: "We'll look at it."

In the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures they are already

it , although it will not be fast, according to official sources: "We are not going to attack users of special relevance as a priority because the European directive does not include any reference to the regulation of

and No member country of the European Union has regulated this issue yet”, they say.

France is the leading country.

In January he made a public consultation on what the future regulation should be like.

From the Government they also emphasize that there is a Code of Conduct for

promoted by the Spanish Association of Advertisers and Autocontrol, to which the IAB, representative of advertising and

The code is voluntary and only affects those who have adhered to it.

agencies

are responsible for what

end up doing : they must inform them and ask them to comply, but then what is published is the

's business alone .

Today there are 970 companies adhered to the code, according to data from Autocontrol.

In 2022 they reviewed a total of 23 cases, according to their activity report, of which only 14 were claims against adherents to the code.

The majority (9) were in cases of food and beverages, and 11 were for covert advertising.

EL PAÍS has consulted four resolutions of the Advertising Jury.

One, for example, is against an Instagram account called @elchefkent for using Mi Caldo pills in a rice recipe.

The opinion establishes that it is unlabeled advertising and gives a non-binding recommendation that explains what "deontological correctness" is.

The Instagram

in question is still on the network, without any apparent change.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Héctor El Chef Kent / Paellas and Rice (@elchefkent)

This is the tiny step that has been taken so far.

In the Government, in addition to highlighting the hypothetical role of self-regulation, they say to be prudent: "We have to be cautious and study the issue very well before making any regulatory decision," say sources from the Secretary of State.

While that happens, an Autocontrol resolution has determined, at least, that loose

are useless;

He talks about the “insufficiency” of the tag “#ad included at the end of the message and diluted among other

"The problem is that the law is always late," says Professor Platero.

“When our audiovisual communication law was approved, which is a transposition of a 2018 community directive, the development of

activity was very primitive.

Nobody thought that, today, a famous

could advertise a product on Instagram and get paid more than conventional television ”, he adds.

If you have more information on this matter, you can write to

You can follow