Nike has become the first company in the UK to have an advertising campaign on Twitter banned.

The Advertising Standards Authority, a watchdog agency, declared Rooney's tweets and those of another British soccer star, Jack Wilshere, amounted to advertisements on Twitter, which is prohibited unless the tweets clearly state they are advertisements.

And the ASA believes Nike had misled Rooney and Wilshere’s followers in not clearly indicating the tweets were for promotional purposes.

Rooney, one of the stars of Nike-sponsored Manchester United, posted a tweet that says, ""My resolution — to start the year as a champion, and finish it as a champion...#makeitcount gonike.me/makeitcount".

Wilshere sent a similar promotional message, in which he told his followers that “In 2012, I will come back for my club — and be ready for my country. #makeitcount gonike.me/Makeitcount.”

"Make It Count" is a slogan Nike introduced in January that has been linked to a variety of products, such as the FuelBand introduced in February. The slogan also has popped in references to Nike-sponsored athletes who will likely compete in London's Summer Olympics.

Nike argued that because both footballers were well-known for their association with the company the player’s respective followers would not feel misled. The ASA disagreed.

The company said it has spoken to both players about their "goals for 2012" and they were free as part of the campaign to independently reply or retweet consumer tweets "at their own discretion".

The company added the web address in the tweet was clearly branded as Nike, and that the message carried the company's ad strap line, making it clear which tweets by the players were personal and which were ads.

The ASA said it was understood from its investigation that the final content of the tweets was "agreed with the help of a member of the Nike marketing team".

The ASA said the average Twitter user would scroll through many tweets a day, quite quickly, and that as such the marketing code states that ads must be "obviously identifiable".

It marks the first time the ASA has acted against a Twitter-based campaign.

"This is relatively new territory for us as a regulator," ASA spokesman Matt Wilson told the BBC.

"People are experimenting and using Twitter to reach consumers, but the same advertising rules apply. It's an ongoing process and this illustrates the care firms must take."

The questionable Tweets failed to include the #spon (sponsored) or #ad (advert) hash tags that have seen other companies get away with similar messages sent from the accounts of famous faces and recognizable personalities.

In March, the ASA investigated a Twitter celebrity campaign undertaken by Mars to promote their Snickers bar, but the chocolate maker was ultimately cleared.