Nike Twitter Ad Campaign Banned As @WayneRooney Breaks The Rules

Nike has become the first UK brand to have its Twitter campaign banned after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the sporting company’s use of professional footballers breached the rules by not making it clear to followers that tweets sent out were ads.

Nike’s promotion, which included such footballing luminaries as Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere, published advertisement tweets that were “agreed with the help of a member of the Nike marketing team”, but didn’t make it clear that these weren’t normal musings, and as such fell foul of the ASA’s regulations.

Rooney’s rule-breaking tweet, which went out to his four million followers in January and was heavily retweeted, can be seen below.

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