The ASA has revealed that it will not be investigating Channel 4’s ‘Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier’ ad created in-house by 4Creative.

In a statement, the advertising standards body said: “We have received 316 complaints about the Channel Four ad campaign for the new series of Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

“The general nature of the complaints were that the ads were offensive because they were racist and denigrated Gypsy and Traveller communities and that the ads featuring children were offensive, irresponsible and harmful because they might encourage bullying.

“We carefully considered the complaints and while we acknowledged that the ads might not be to everyone’s taste, we noted that both the images and the text reflected the tone and content of the programme they promoted. For these reasons, we did not consider the ads were likely to cause serious or widespread offence or be seen as irresponsible or harmful and will not therefore be taking any further action.”

Some versions of the ad had been graffitied with the words ‘more racist’ at the bottom.

Tweets sent by Rio Ferdinand and Katie Price promoting Snickers are to be formally investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Following complaints, the ASA will look into whether the tweets were in breach of advertising rules by failing to adequately inform the public they were part of a marketing campaign.

Ferdinand and Price, along with Ian Botham, Amir Khan and X Factor’s Cher Lloyd have all been paid to promote the chocolate bar.

When Sky News contacted Snickers earlier this week, a spokesperson said a series of “teaser tweets” had been sent out to “comply with social media regulations” to “ensure Twitter users knew they were enjoying promotional tweets”.

But the ASA will investigate whether it was clear the celebrity was getting paid to advertise the product.

Katie Price also tweeted a picture with a Snickers bar

In a statement the regulator said: “The ASA has launched a formal investigation into tweets by Katie Price and Rio Ferdinand to establish whether Mars’ @SnickersUK#hungry#spon campaign is in breach of the Advertising Codes.

“We are investigating two points: (a) whether it should have been stated in the ‘teaser’ tweets that they were marketing communications and (b) whether the hashtag “#spon” in the final ‘reveal’ tweet made it clear enough that that tweet was a marketing communication.”

More at: http://news.sky.com/home/showbiz-news/article/16157569