At first, I wondered why people had such a disdain for Lydia, but over time I understood why. She is a pathological liar, which doesn't bode well for her chosen career path. My pre-eminent issue with Lydia is this:
Lydia consistently fails to disclose social media endorsements in a way that is transparent with her followers.
This is why a number of people take her to task regularly for being blatantly dishonest and then acting passively-agressively butthurt that someone mentions she is not following the basic legal requirements of her "job!"
Literally, it's Lydia's job (legally) to disclose what is paid for, gifted, and so on... she does not.
Yet, she is extremely rude to people who point it out to her. As we all do, I follow content creators and happily support their partnerships because they DO NOT LIE about what is paid, gifted, or incentivized. She trumps it up to "haters", but the reality is there are professional content creators that understand the industry they operate in and comply accordingly. As a result, everyone's happy!
In the UK, the CMA is pretty clear about brand sponsorships and endorsements
"People need to know if influencers have been paid, incentivised or in any way rewarded to endorse or review something in their posts. It’s important that they make this clear to their followers. This includes when a product or service has been given to them for free. This needs to be clearly stated when a product, brand or service is tagged, linked or endorsed in any way. If you mislead your followers, you may be breaking consumer protection law, and could face enforcement action from the CMA, local authority Trading Standards services..."
Lydia is so dim that she simply cannot abide by CMA regulations for content creators...
The CMA makes it absurdly clear
here where they state:
"If you have not purchased a product or service yourself but received it free, make this clear." They even created a fool-proof guide for Influencer Dummies: https://www.asa.org.uk/resource/influencers-guide.html
They spell out what language is appropriate and what is not.
The only reason she's made an effort to comply with the CMA is because people regularly take her to task for not doing so.
I suggest reporting Lydia to the CMA if you notice that she's lying once again!
(I've come with receipts!)
Any consumer can file a formal influencer complaint online:
https://www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html
She has one that was resolved informally. She mentioned this in a 2018 blog post about how she received the legal letter of her infraction. This is clearly all she responds to.
Ultimately, if people have to remind you how to do your job, that's a problem. I want to know that the content creators I give my time and attention to are authentic and making recommendations with ethics in mind. Lydia is just too dim to understand that today's consumers are educated and discerning. There's a million Lydia's online, and putting a bad taste in the mouth of a large number of viewers doesn't bode well for her gifted pocketbook.