Ad watchdog clears sweet tweets
Confectionary giant Mars is cleared by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over model Katie Price and footballer Rio Ferdinand’s tweets advertising Snickers chocolate bars.
The ruling is the first time the watchdog has been asked to consider posts on the social networking site Twitter.
The ASA was called in after receiving complaints over a chain of bizarre, economy and knitting-related tweets sent in January from the official accounts of the footballer and the model followed by a final Snickers tweet and a picture.
But following an investigation, the watchdog has said that no advertising rules had not been breached. The tweets caused some people to think that both of their accounts had been hacked.
Hungry
In her first tweet, Ms Price, who has 1.5m followers, said: “Great news about China’s latest GDP figures!!”
Her second read: “Chinese leaders are now likely to loosen monetary policy to stimulate growth. Yay!!”
She then proceeded to tweet: “OMG!! Eurozone debt problems can only properly be solved by true fiscal union!!! #comeonguys”
Her penultimate tweet said: “Large scale quantitative easing in 2012 could distort liquidity of govt. bond market. #justsayin.”
She finally tweeted picture of herself holding a Snickers bar and said: “You’re not you when you’re hungry @snickersUK #hungry #spon”
Knitting
Ferdinand’s tweets contained similarly unexplained references to knitting, before ending with the Snickers advertising slogan.
The tweeter, who has 1.5m followers, began: “Really getting into the knitting!!! Helps me relax after high-pressure world of the Premiership.”
Further tweets added: “Can’t wait 2 get home from training and finish that cardigan”; “Just popping out 2 get more wool!!!”; “Cardy finished. Now 4 the matching mittens!!!”
He ended in the same way as Ms Price, by saying: “You’re not you when you’re hungry @snickers UK #hungry #spon…”, with an image of him holding the Snickers bar.
The ASA investigated after receiving two complaints which suggested that both series of tweets breached industry codes with questions over whether they were clearly marked as marketing communications.
Large scale quantitative easing in 2012 could distort liquidity of govt. bond market. Katie Price
They examined whether the advertising campaign by Mars, which manufactures the chocolate bar, should have stated in their ‘teaser’ tweets that they were marketing communications. They also looked into whether the hashtag #spon in the final ‘reveal’ tweet made it clear enough that it was part of a marketing campaign.
Sponsored
Mars told the ASA that in each case, the fifth tweet stated #spon to indicate that the content had been sponsored.
“They said the fifth tweets were the only ones that featured the product and were therefore the only marketing communications involved,” the ASA said.
But while the watchdog disagreed with Mars’ assertion, insisting that each tweet formed part of an “orchestrated advertising campaign”, it accepted the company’s use of Twitter.
It said: “We noted the first four tweets in each series served as ‘teasers’, which, due to their nature, were likely to generate additional interest in the celebrities’ postings.
“We also noted those tweets did not make any reference to Snickers or to Mars and were posted in relatively quick succession.
“In addition, we noted that the fifth ‘reveal’ tweets showed the celebrities with the product and included the text, ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry @snickersUk #hungry #spon’.”
Cardy finished. Now 4 the matching mittens!!! Rio Ferdinand
The watchdog added: “We considered the combination of those elements was sufficient to make clear the tweets were advertising, and that consumers would then understand each series of tweets was a marketing communication.”
The first four tweets were not individually labelled as being part of the marketing campaign, the ASA said, but that was “acceptable”.
No further action will be taken, the watchdog ruled.
