Warner Bros. has settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers during a marketing campaign for the video game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor by failing to disclose that it paid online “influencers,” including “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.
Warner Bros. is barred from failing to make disclosures in the future, and it can’t misrepresent that sponsored content, including gameplay videos, are the independent opinions of video game players or influencers, under a proposed FTC order announced Monday.
“Consumers have the right to know if reviewers are providing their own opinions or paid sales pitches,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Companies like Warner Bros. need to be straight with consumers in their online ad campaigns.”
The FTC’s lawsuit comes after a late-2014 Warner Bros. online marketing campaign designed to generate interest in the new release of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, a fantasy role-playing game loosely based on “The Hobbit” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
It was released in September 2014 for the PlayStation 3 and in November 2014 for the Xbox 360.
During the campaign, Warner Bros., through its advertising agency Plaid Social Labs, hired online influencers to develop sponsored gameplay videos and post them on YouTube, according to the lawsuit. Warner Bros. also told the influencers to promote the videos on Twitter and Facebook, generating millions of views. PewDiePie’s sponsored video was viewed more than 3.7 million times.
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 lawsuit. The FTC said that Warner Bros. required the influencers to promote the game in a positive way and not to disclose any bugs or glitches they found.
While the videos were sponsored content – actually ads for Shadow of Mordor – the FTC alleges that Warner Bros. failed to require the paid influencers to adequately disclose this. The FTC also alleges that Warner Bros. didn’t instruct the influencers to include sponsorship disclosures clearly in the video where consumers were likely to see or hear them.
Instead, according to the lawsuit, Warner Bros. told influencers to put the disclosures in the description box appearing below the video. Because Warner Bros. also required other information to be placed in that box, the majority of sponsorship disclosures appeared “below the fold,” visible only if consumers clicked on the “Show More” button in the description box.
In addition, when influencers posted YouTube videos on Facebook or Twitter, the posting didn’t include the “Show More” button, making it even less likely that consumers would see the sponsorship disclosures.
The lawsuit also alleges that in some cases, the influencers disclosed only that they’d received early access to Shadow of Mordor, but failed to disclose that Warner Bros. also had paid them to promote the game.
The FTC also alleges that the Warner Bros.’ contracts with influencers required their videos to be pre-approved, and that on at least one occasion Warner Bros. reviewed and approved an influencer video that lacked adequate sponsorship disclosure.
The public can comment on the agreement during a 30 day- comment period which ends Aug. 10. Consumers can submit comments electronically.
