Talent Management: Celebrities Endorsing Products On Twitter Cause Controversy

Jan. 11, 2011 - PRLog -- Not only are those famous for their Twitter tirades causing trouble - Courtney Love is currently being sued by Dawn Simorangkir after calling her a prostitute and a thief on Twitter – but celebrities endorsing products are also causing a stir.

But does it really matter if Henry Holland Tweets that Ikea is “so hip it hurts”? So long as celebrities aren’t being secretly paid for it, sure. But how do we know? The answer is we don’t. And that’s the issue many are concerned about.

Lara O'Reilly, digital news reporter from Marketing Week, told the BBC: “The issue here is transparency.

“Endorsement, no matter in which media, needs to be open rather than covert.”

“[O]nline advertising and marketing practices that do not disclose they include paid-for promotions are deceptive under fair trading laws,” the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said in a statement last month.

“This includes comments about services and products on website blogs and microblogs such as Twitter.

“Online promotional activity, just like any promotional activity, must clearly identify when promotions and editorial comment have been paid for, so consumers are not misled,” the OFT added.

But what of the recent controversy around particular celebrities who are known for promoting products and services? In response, a spokeswoman for the OFT said: “We are not monitoring the whole of the internet with a view to going after individual bloggers.”

The models and team at Talent Management (http://www.talentmanagement.com) are huge fans of Twitter - follow us here http://twitter.com/#!/talentmanagemnt and find out what we get up to – but the rules are changing and affecting the entertainment industry already, which is something everyone will have to take into account sooner or later.

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Talent Management is a nationwide talent agency helping clients find the talent they need, every day. We've been active in the talent business for almost two decades, connecting models, actors, dancers, singers, entertainers and musicians to business and helping new talent promote themselves with an agency. If you're interested in becoming a model, actor, singer, dancer, entertainer or musician, you can apply at the Talent Management site - http://www.talentmanagement.com/

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