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GLOBAL – JANUARY 2011 – The United Kingdom’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) wants a crackdown on Twitter celebrity endorsers who do not disclose their relationship with brands, reported The Guardian last week. The OFT also started to investigate further Handpicked Media, a company of collective independent sites and blogs about fashion, culture and arts, food and lifestyle.
Celebrities are now paid by companies to tweet about their products. The advertising service Ad.ly, for example, has 5,000 personalities who will endorse products through their Twitter accounts for a fee. Its rival Izea, once focused on bloggers, has also expanded to Twitter.
But how about cases that are not as clear? Rapper 50 Cent tweeted about the stocks of H&H Imports, sending stock prices rising nearly three-fold. 50 Cent’s personal interest? He partnered with H&H Imports’ TV Goods for headphones called Sleek By 50, and has 30 million shares in H&H. He may not have been paid to tweet favorably, but with 3.8 million followers, he wields tremendous influence a brand would be willing to pay for.
