Tweets for sale

Focus Questions

  1. What is Twitter?
  2. How long have advertisers used celebrities to sell products?
  3. What is product placement?
  4. Why is Twitter popular with celebrities and their fans?
  5. What has Shannon Noll been promoting on Twitter recently?
  6. Which other celebrities have been paid to tweet about products?
  7. How do celebrities in the US let people know when they are getting paid to tweet?
  8. In Australia, celebrities don’t have to let people know when they are selling a product on Twitter. True or false?
  9. How effective do you think celebrity endorsement is? Explain your answer.
  10. Do you think celebrities should make it clear when they are being paid to sell a product? Explain your answer.

Tweets for sale

Clarify students understanding of what a celebrity endorsement is (the use of celebrities to increase the sales of a product or value of a brand).

Students think of celebrities used to sell products.

Write down the name of the celebrity and the product they sell.

Then ask them to think about all the places where ads are sometimes hidden (television shows, movies, video games, social networking service).

Ask student to look for product placements and/or celebrity endorsements in a range of media programs. Ask them to record the following:

  • What the product was and where did it appear?
  • Who is the intended target audience?
  • Is it made clear that the celebrity endorsement is an advertisement?
  • Do you think product placement/celebrity endorsement is more or less effective than a 30-second commercial advertising the same product? Explain your answer.

Ask students to share what they have discovered with the rest of the class.

Students will then consider the following question and hold a class debate about the issue.

Should celebrities make it clear when they are being paid to tweet about a product?

How convincing were the arguments for and against the issue? Have you changed your opinion on the issue?

Further investigations

Design an advertisement selling celebrity tweets as a valid and effective form of advertising.

Respond to the following statement in no more than 140 characters (maximum length of a tweet)
Celebrities should make it clear when they are being paid to tweet about a product.

Related Research Links

ABC News – Tourism boss defends cash for tweets

ABC Media watch – Nice tweets if you can `em

© ABC 2012