Former GOP vice presidential nominee and Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, is now a stealth pitch woman for "skinny tea" makers Teami, CNN reported.
Palin posted a photo of a "skinny tea" along with a discount code for 15 percent off to her more than 25,000 Instagram followers Wednesday.
"As a busy mom I need all the energy I can get, but coffee makes me crash mid-day and I dread feeling sluggish (and sometimes not so super kid-friendly!)," she wrote in the post.
"After visiting Bristol recently, she raved about the @teamiblends skinny tea that she swears by and has been using forever, so I gave the teas a shot - Amazing! My new coffee replacement for a few weeks now! I travel a lot, plus we do so many outdoor activities requiring lots of energy - the teas help and actually let me keep up with Trig 🏃 It's easy to take the tea everywhere after filling up my tumbler in the morning. So easy! No need to add sugar because it's so good 😘 You can use code PALIN for 15% off your order! #thankyouteami"
Other "influencers" who have posted about a company's product include Haley Dillon, who has more than 28,000 followers and is the wife of NASCAR driver Ty Dillon; Camelia Katoozian, a beauty blogger with 320,000 followers; and Jessica Carroll, a contestant on Season 22 of "The Bachelor" with nearly 21,000 followers, CNN reported.
The Federal Trade Commission requires influencers to disclose their relationship to a brand if they endorse or promote it on social media — and it is often seen with the hashtag #ad, #spon, or #sponsored in the caption, CNN reported.
There were no such hashtags in Palin's post.
Teami defended Palin's post.
"Sarah Palin has been a customer of our brand since 2016. Her and her family all use and love Teami Blends. We are very lucky that she chose to share her Teami experience with her audience," Carly Halvin, social media manager for Teami, wrote CNN in an email.
Halvin did not answer whether Palin was paid for the pitch. Palin did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
Palin's daughter Bristol, who has 145,000 followers, has posted about Teami seven times so far this year and has included similar language in her captions, offering a 15 percent discount with the code BRIS15 and also using the hashtag #thankyouteami, CNN reported.
According to BuzzFeed, it is typical for influencers to make about 1 percent of their follower count per post. Using that estimate, if Palin's post is sponsored, she could have made about $250 for it, CNN reported.
Palin also posted the Teami photo on Facebook, which CNN reported was edited a minute afterward to to add an "-SP" after the paragraph explaining how she uses the product, indicating she wrote it and not someone on her behalf. It also includes the 15 percent off discount code.
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