Rio Ferdinand has been reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority over PlayStation sponsored posts

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Former England star and football pundit Rio Ferdinand was reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority for failing to properly disclose that a series of Twitter posts made in partnership with PlayStation were advertisements.

The now-deleted tweets included a video of Ferdinand discussing the upcoming Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, with the following: “Here’s who I think will go home.” [trophy emoji] … Term ends at the #PlayStationHouse before the #UCLFinalv… @ PlayStation #PlayStationPartner. ”

A second tweet included a series of photos showing Ferdinand taking part in various activities at PlayStation House, which appears to be a pop-up social event for influencers ahead of the Champions League final.

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Sony, through its media agency, argued that it required Ferdinand’s team to include “#ad” in posts about the event, but Fedrinand’s representatives said their contract only told them to type “#PlayStationPartner” as an indication that the messages were ads.

Sony also noted that the video prominently featured a PlayStation-branded studio, and that the format of Mr Ferdinand being interviewed by a professional video gamer about the upcoming Champions League final made it clear that it was not independently generated content, but rather collaborative content created for marketing purposes. .

It also highlighted that the video contained the PlayStation and Champions League logos on screen throughout its duration.

However, the ASA was not convinced. The use of the hashtag “#PlayStationPartner” was not sufficient because the ASA did not consider it “a clear endorsement of the business relationship between Mr. Ferdinand and Sony”.

“[W]We concluded that they should have clearly been classified as advertisements, and thus concluded that they violated the Code.”

As such, ads must not appear again and any future ads must be clearly marked, such as the #ad tag.

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