Dispatches to broadcast Corrie Twitter sting - Daily TV round-up

Channel 4 is to go ahead and broadcast its 'Coronation Street' Twitter sting investigation, despite legal threats from the show.

The edition of 'Dispatches', called 'Celebs, Brands and Fake Fans', will air on August 5 at 8pm, and will detail how celebrities endorse products on Twitter, alleging that Corrie stars broke codes of advertising standards.

Journalists on the show created a fake brand called 'Puttana Aziendale' – which translates in Italian as 'corporate whore' – and invited 'Coronation Street' stars to an event where they were given free cosmetics from the company.

Stars such as Brooke Vincent, who plays Sophie Webster on the show, later tweeted endorsing the the fake brand.

The promotional bottles of toner given to the celebs actually contained nothing but water it was revealed.

According to new rules by the Advertising Standards Authority, tweets endorsing products should be hash-tagged using #spons or #ad to make it clear that they are endorsements.

ITV has threatened to sue Channel 4 if they broadcast the programme, denying that the stars engaged in 'unlawful marketing promotion'.

[Corrie's Julie helps cancer charity]

Detailing the show, Channel 4 said: “Celebrities have considerable influence on social media.

“But are some less than transparent when tweeting brand names with their legions of fans?

“Dispatches exposes the new tricks used by marketeers to plug brands, from buying fake Facebook ‘likes’ and YouTube ‘views’ to influencing social media conversations.” [Metro/Daily Mirror]

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