Keith Chegwin has fallen foul of the ad regulator after he used Twitter to promote a prize draw from gaming firm PCH, despite claims from the company that his tweet was not part of his contract with the business.
The tweet, posted from Chegwin’s account, sated: “Just a quickie: Log on to pchprizes.co.uk 4 Your chance 2 win £100k plus Win £2,500 a week 4 life. Have a go X”.
PCH admitted to the Advertising Standards Authority that it did have a promotional relationship with Chegwin, currently starring in ITV’s Dancing on Ice.
It also conceded that its contract with him specified promotional tasks, but there was nothing which required or invited him to tweet on firm’s behalf.
PCH claimed it was not responsible for the tweet and it was not a marketing communication, and it therefore did not fall within the ASA’s remit.
But following an investigation, the discovered Chegwin was in fact directly involved in the promotion of the competition about which he had tweeted and was featured prominently on PCH’s website in relation to the competition.
In the absence of an identifier such as “#ad”, the regulator considered the tweet was not obviously identifiable as a PCH marketing communication. It that it had breached the code and must not appear again.
Related stories
Rooney under fire for Nike tweets
Mars ruling to spark Twitter chaos
