Celebrities who fail to declare a financial interest in the promotion of products via Twitter are coming under the scrutiny of the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading.
by Helen Leggatt
twitter2 logo bird.jpgIn the U.S., where celebrities with millions of Twitter followers can earn thousands of dollars to rave about products, the FTC requires that the word 'ad' or 'spon' be appended to paid-for Tweets.
At present, no such requirement is in place in the U.K. The government is worried that Twitter users won't be able to tell when their idols are being financially incentivized to name-drop in their Tweets.
Hence the Office of Fair Trading is reportedly stepping up its efforts to crack down on celebrities, and those paying them, that fail to label paid-for Tweets as ads, viewing it as a breach of British consumer protection laws.
Celebrity endorsements aren't new, but the mediums via which they are now being broadcast are. Regulations are needed to protect consumers from deceptive advertising, but responsibility must also fall on advertisers to instill trust and loyalty via honesty and openness when using new media.
