According to Business Insider, the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has ruled that both media personalities and Ithuba breached the code on South African advertising when the celebrities did not indicate that their tweets were adverts. Between 11 and 13 August, the hashtag #KnowYourNationalLottery trended to the number one spot on Twitter in South Africa. This was after comedians Skhumba, Celeste Ntuli and Schalk Bezuidenhout posted videos on their individual accounts that sought to illustrate how the money Ithuba makes from ticket sales gets distributed. In the campaign, the stars explained that the lottery money supports various charities and that spaza shops and retailers receive commission for the sales they make. According to the campaign, this was a good way to spend R5.

Of the comedians using the hashtag, only Schalk Bezuidenhout indicated that it is a paid campaign, this was because he used the hashtag “#ad”. Skhumba and Celeste failed to do so. Celeste’s tweet has since been deleted. As per South Africa’s advertising code for social media and influencer marketing the hashtags #AD, #Advertisement or #Sponsored have to be included in campaigns. The ARB ruled that Skhumba and Celeste’s Twitter posts were not organic. It said that the Ithuba logo and lotto numbers in the background made matters worse. In addition, the ARB said that the videos should have been posted on the national lottery’s accounts to avoid the assumption that the posts were organic and free.

“However, this is only likely to be discovered after having watched any particular video in its entirety, meaning that consumers are not provided with the necessary indicators to immediately realise that this is sponsored or paid-for content, and not organic social media,” it said. Because neither the comedians nor Ithuba are members of the ARB, it has now told its members that the Twitter promos “should not be accepted for publication”.