"Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor" has come under fire due to its deceptive advertising done by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game publisher has paid these personalities a lot of money for their advertisement of the video game.
Recently, the United States government has announced that it has proposed a settlement with the game publisher over a campaign that did deceptive marketing for their video game. According to the official website of the Federal Trade Commission, the game publisher has failed to properly mention that their advertisers like PewDiePie and others were sponsored to do paid advertisement of their video game on YouTube and other social media platforms.
The advertisement campaign for the video game happened in late 2013, before it was launched. More than 5.5 million views were gained from the video that had sponsorship with no adequate disclosure. The game publisher paid the social media personalities a hefty amount of money for the advertisement through its advertising agency, Plaid Social Labs.
Director of FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection Jessica Rich said in a statement that companies that pay for advertisements should be straight with consumers in their online ad campaigns. She added that they have the right to know if the reviewers are really giving their own reviews, or they were just paid to do one for a sales pitch.
The FTC also said that the game publisher did not tell its paid advertisers that they needed to mention the sponsorship disclosures in the actual videos. These advertisers only put the disclosures in the video description box in written form, which were only visible when a YouTube viewer presses the Show More button. The commission has also claimed that the game publisher has reviewed and approved a video on at least one occasion that did not have the proper sponsorship disclosure.
The settlement now states that the game publisher or any other firm working for them must make sure that their future campaign ads follow the rules. The company should also teach the advertisers about the sponsorship disclosures, and they also should keep track of the sponsored videos to make sure they are complying with the rules. If an advertiser does not follow, they can cancel or withhold payment for them.
A representative of the game publisher told Gamespot in a statement that they will strive to be transparent with their customers and fans when they work with social advertisers. They will also comply with the guidelines from the commission.
YouTube personality Felix Kjellberg, also known as PewDiePie, has said in a statement that he did not do anything wrong. He said that he was not even required to disclose that he was paid for the positive coverage during that time. He also pointed out that he even put the disclosure on his video, while the other advertisers did not do it.
Check out PewDiePie's gameplay video below: