Former England footballer Rio Ferdinand has been reprimanded for posting a string of tweets and a video at a PlayStation event without stating it was an advert. The ex-Manchester United player, who now works as pundit on BT Sport and featured in the BBC's World Cup coverage in Qatar, was slapped down by the advertising watchdog the ASA this week.
In a video posted on his Twitter account on May 27, Ferdinand was seen making a prediction that Real Madrid would beat Liverpool in the Champions League final the next day. The Spanish side ran out 1-0 winners over the Reds.
Images of the former Leeds and West Ham star, who won Europe's highest club accolade himself in 2008, showed him playing PlayStation with his ex-Red Devils teammate Patrice Evra. Another post showed a series of pictures of Ferdinand taking part in challenges at PlayStation House, a specially created venue in Paris for the final.
But an anonymous viewer tipped off the Advertising Standards Authority about the tweets, complaining they were not clearly identified as marketing messages. The complaint was upheld and the 44-year-old, who represented his country 81 times and won the Premier League six times, was warned similar posts must not appear again on his social media account, unless clearly marked with an "ad" hashtag.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Ltd that makes PlayStations and ran the event, was also handed a slap on the wrist.
The first incriminating tweet included a video of Rio Ferdinand discussing the upcoming Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. Text alongside the clip posted on Ferdinand's page stated: “Here’s who I think will be taking home the [trophy emoji] … Class day down at #PlayStationHouse ahead of the #UCLFinalv … @PlayStation #PlayStationPartner”.
The second tweet included images of Rio Ferdinand taking part in various challenges at the “PlayStation House” social event before the Champions League final. Above the images, the message read: “Some day [fire emoji] #PlayStationHouse”.
The complainant challenged whether the tweets were "obviously identifiable as marketing communications", the ASA said. Sony claimed that through its media agency, it told Ferdinand's team to include "#ad" to posts about the event, but the former defender's representatives said their contract only told them to write #PlayStationPartner” as an indication the messages were adverts.
It was also claimed that the second tweet was a reply to the original video post and so did not need to be identified as an ad again. But the watchdog ruled this distinction was not clear enough to the majority of users who saw the tweets.
The ASA judgement read: "We concluded that they [the tweets] should have been clearly labelled as ads, and we therefore concluded that they breached the code. The ads must not appear again in the form complained about.
"We told Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Ltd and Rio Ferdinand to ensure that in future their ads were obviously identifiable as marketing communications and made clear upfront their commercial intent, for example, by including a clear and prominent identifier such as '#ad'."
In its reasoning, the ASA said the hashtag "PlayStationPartners" was not sufficient to identify the posts as adverts. It added: "Sony said that it was their belief that the presentation, tone and style of [video] ad was suitably different from Mr Ferdinand’s usual Twitter posts to differentiate it as a marketing communication, and that neither ad falsely presented Mr Ferdinand as a consumer, but rather as a footballing expert.
"Sony said while they accepted that '#PlayStationPartner' was not their recommended disclosure, they thought that the term 'Partner' did suggest a commercial relationship, which was reinforced by the heavy presence of PlayStation branding and the tone and presentation of the ads.
"They also said they believed that a disclosure such as '#ad' was not always necessary. We understood that Mr Ferdinand’s use of the tag '#PlayStationPartners' was intended to refer to his commercial relationship with Sony, and that the tag had been suggested to him by Sony in their guidance document, albeit in error.
"While the posts contained some elements that indicated there might be a commercial relationship between Sony and Mr Ferdinand, we considered that the language used was not sufficiently clear to ensure that the posts were obviously identifiable as ads. We did not consider that tagging the posts with '#PlayStationPartners' or 'PlayStationHouse' amounted to a clear acknowledgment of the commercial relationship between Mr Ferdinand and Sony, which would be immediately understandable to a consumer."
Rio Ferdinand and Sony Interactive Entertainment have been contacted for comment.
