A tweet from rock icon Ozzy Osbourne has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for failing to mention that it was an advert for Sony PlayStation.
The post – which was shared from Osbourne’s account in February – showed him playing on a Sony PlayStation VR2, with accompanying text reading: “Did this spot with @PlayStation team. We had a lot of fun. Their new VR2 is really amazing.”
The tweet included a video which opened with the PlayStation logo before cutting to Osbourne unpacking a virtual reality headset and controllers as his wife, Sharon Osbourne, told him that they needed to get ready and catch a flight to England.
The video then showed Ozzy playing the game and highlighted the console’s launch date, before ending with the on-screen text ‘Play has no limits’, followed by the PlayStation logo.
The nature of the tweet meant that some believed it was not obviously identifiable as a marketing communication.
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However, Sony said the video promoting the PlayStation VR2 was featured across different media in the UK including TV, video on demand (VOD) and YouTube pre-roll placements. It was not created specifically for inclusion on Ozzy Osbourne’s Twitter account, nor did it mimic or mirror the content styles or formats used by Osbourne in his social media content.
Sony responded to the complaint, confirming it had given Osbourne’s management company final approval over the video’s script. He was contracted to post a tweet sharing the video as part of the agreement, in a way which “clearly disclosed” that he had worked with Sony.
The format or content of the tweet’s wording was not specified, nor did Sony have any approval over the post.
Sony said it believed the word ‘spot’ in the text: “Did this spot with the @PlayStation team” would be clearly understood by Twitter users to refer to an advertising spot, while placing the wording at the beginning of the tweet also showed the commercial nature of the video.
The ASA did not consider that the wording, including the use of the word ‘spot’, was enough clearly indicate that the tweet was part of a commercial relationship between Sony and Ozzy Osbourne.
“We acknowledged the positioning of that wording in the tweet was both prominent and visible before the video started playing,” the watchdog said.
“Because the ad did not make clear its commercial intent upfront, we considered it was not obviously identifiable as a marketing communication and concluded that it breached the code.”
The ASA said that the ad must not appear again in its current form.
