The Advertising Standards Association (ASA) have cleared Snickers' Twitter campaign following complaints that celebrity endorsements were not clearly presented as advertisements.
The campaign involved celebrities tweeting messages that would not be expected, such as Katie Price voicing her opinion on economics, causing followers to question if the accounts had been hacked. Other celebrities featured in the promotion included X Factor singer Cher Lloyd who announced she was a secret fan of Russian literature, and footballer Rio Ferdinand.
Ferdinand posted four tweets in quick succession, confessing to a new found love for knitting:
All 'out-of-character' tweets were followed by the Snickers tag-line "You're not yourself when you're hungry", a photograph of the celebrity with the product, and hashtag #spon meaning 'sponsored tweet'.
Complaints were sent to the ASA stating it was 'not obvious' that the tweets were advertisements, and the messages not labelled #spon were in breach of ASA and Ofcom regulations. However, ASA has decided that all tweets were part of an "orchestrated" marketing campaign.
The watchdog 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".
"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 decision allows gives other marketers the go-ahead to advertise in a similar manner providing all marketing is clearly disclosed to users.
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