You’re not you (when you’re hawking chocolate)

The recent uproar about the new Snickers Twitter campaign has raised a few eyebrows at Morrow Communications and kicked off a bit of a debate about communications on Twitter.

In case you haven’t seen it - as a tie-in to its Joan Collins / Stephanie Beecham fronted TV ad, various celebrities (with a combined followership of nearly 5 million) allowed their twitter streams to be taken over by Snickers. The campaign saw Katie Price tweeting about global economic policy and Ian Botham talking about his love of the cello. All to illustrate the fact that “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”

 So far, so clever-clever. But when the celebs then posted a pic of themselves with the aforementioned nut and nougat based confectionary and the hashtag @snickersUK#hungry#spon (which isn’t even a proper hashtag) followers were apparently upset that they had been “marketed at” without prior permission.

Some cynics amongst you might say it’s ridiculous that anyone following Katie Price has a problem with being marketed to (she is a one woman masterclass in the art of self-promotion – currently working on her 5^th ‘autobiography’).  Nonetheless, the ASA are investigating the matter and it could have serious consequences for the communications industry.

The complaints centre round the fact that the initial “takeover” tweets were not signposted as being part of a promotional campaign and therefore formed some sort of ‘stealth advertising.’

The problem with trying to restrict promotional activity on a platform such as twitter is that it could be argued that everybody’s tweets are in some way selling something. Whether that is a new fitness DVD, an unpublished novel or just the concept of yourself as a ‘real cool dude.’ Does taking a photo of your dinner in that swanky restaurant everyone’s been talking about constitute advertising?

The Snickers’ furore will no doubt make many working in communications wary of trying to take advantage of this still unpredictable media. As McDonald’s recent experience might show (the #McDstories campaign resulted in 140 character anecdotes about fingernails found in big macs amongst other delights), Twitter can be virulently anti-corporate.

Commentators are now wondering if the ASA will recommend each tweet with a promotional slant is tagged with something similar to TV drama’s use of the product placement ‘PP’ logo. Perhaps we can start the hashtag right here? Suggestions?