FTC charges Warner Bros., because through a marketing campaign, misled consumers by suggesting that the gameplay videos of\u00a0 Shadow of Mordor\u00a0reflected the independent or objective views of the influencers. The complaint also alleges that Warner Bros. failed to adequately disclose that the gamers were compensated for their positive reviews.<\/p>\n
The FTC refers to a late-2014 Warner Bros. online marketing campaign designed to generate buzz within the gaming community for the new release of\u00a0 Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, a fantasy role-playing game loosely based on\u00a0The Hobbit\u00a0and the Lord of the Rings\u00a0trilogy. It was released in\u00a0September 2014\u00a0for the PlayStation 3 and in\u00a0November 2014\u00a0for the Xbox 360.<\/p>\n
The Commission says that Warner Bros. paid online influencers, including the wildly popular PewDiePie, thousands of dollars to post positive gameplay videos on YouTube and social media. During the campaign, the sponsored videos were viewed more than 5.5 million times.<\/p>\n
Warner Bros. paid each influencer from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars, gave them a free advance-release version of the game, and told them how to promote it, according to the complaint. The FTC estimates there’s evidence that Warner Bros. required the influencers to promote the game in a positive way and not to disclose any defects or malfunctions they found.<\/p>\n The videos were sponsored content (the majority ads for Shadow of Mordor) the FTC alleges that Warner Bros. not only failed to require the paid influencers to adequately disclose this fact. The cpompany did not instruct the influencers to include sponsorship disclosures clearly and conspicuously in the video itself where consumers were likely to see or hear them. Further more,<\/p>\n According to FTC complaint, Warner Bros. instructed influencers to place the disclosures in the description box appearing below the video.<\/p>\n The vast majority of sponsorship disclosures were visible only if consumers clicked on the Show More button in the description box. Besides, when influencers posted YouTube videos on Facebook or Twitter, the posting did not include the Show More button, making it even less likely that consumers would see the sponsorship disclosures.<\/p>\n The influencers disclosed only that they had received early access to Shadow of Mordor, but failed to disclose that Warner Bros. also had paid them to promote the game.<\/p>\n FTC also alleges that the Warner Bros.’ contracts with influencers subjected their videos to pre-approval, and that on at least one occasion Warner Bros. reviewed and approved an influencer video that lacked adequate sponsorship disclosure.<\/p>\n Image over the headline.-<\/strong> Caption of Shadow of Mordor game.\u00a9 Warner Brothers.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Caption](\"https:\/\/eastwind.es\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/Shadow-of-Mordor_online-infuencer_deceptive-advertising_1500pix_RRSS..jpg\")
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