Nike’s Football Twitter Promotion Banned after Rooney & Wilshere Tweets

Nike’s Twitter promotion to publicise its ‘Make It Count’ campaign has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The watchdog upheld a complaint that tweets from Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere, both sponsored by Nike, where not obviously identifiable as marketing communications.

Rooney, who has nearly 4.4 million followers, recently tweeted: “My resolution – to start the year as a champion, and finish it as a champion…#makeitcount gonike.me/makeitcount.”

While, Wilshere, who has recently quit Twitter, posted: “In 2012, I will come back for my club — and be ready for my country. #makeitcount.gonike.me/Makeitcount.”

While the ASA [Advertising Standards Authority] acknowledge that certain players are paid to promote brands, they state that any tweets must clearly indicate that they are an advertisement and not the player’s own thoughts.

The ASA concluded that the Nike reference was not prominent, consumers would not have already been aware of the #makeitcount campaign and that not all Twitter users would be aware of the footballers’ and their teams’ sponsorship deals with Nike.

In a statement, the ASA said: “We considered there was nothing obvious in the tweets to indicate they were Nike marketing communications.

“In the absence of such an indication, for example #ad, we considered the tweets were not obviously identifiable as Nike marketing communications and therefore concluded they breached the Committee of Advertising Practice code.”