Nike appeal against Rooney tweet ban shows flaws in ad regulation

NIKE MADE THE headlines at least in the marketing media when its #makeitcount twitter campaign featuring footballers Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshire was banned by the UK’s Advertising Standard Authority. The ASA investigated after a complaint alleged that the tweets were not sufficiently clearly marked as advertising. It ruled that, in the absence of a marker such as #ad, the tweets were not obviously identifiable as Nike marketing communications and were therefore in breached of its rules on recognition of marketing communications. However, almost a month after the ruling, the tweets have still not been removed by Nike because it is appealing the decision using the watchdog’s own appeals process. Nike is seeking to have the ban overturned under the process which allows it to ask the ASA’s Independent Reviewer to study the ruling.