Home Gaming FTC raps Warner Bros over the knuckles for undisclosed Shadow of Mordor promotion

FTC raps Warner Bros over the knuckles for undisclosed Shadow of Mordor promotion

2 min read
23

SoM beastmaster

it was a couple years ago now, when news broke about some shady dealings with YouTubers. We told you about it at the time – Shadow of Mordor was coming and Warner Bros had offered access to the game, as well as payment, to YouTubers but in return they weren’t allowed to say anything negative. This was sort of a big deal – despite commonly held beliefs that YouTubers are somehow more transparent or ethical than traditional games media, it turned out that their opinions were for sale. More than that, they weren’t disclosing these arrangements, something that’s actually against the rules set out by the Federal Trade Commission in the US of A.

In fact, the FTC investigated this matter and has reached a settlement with Warner Bros. Warner Bros was accused of not ensuring that sponsorships were disclosed “clearly and conspicuously” – in fact, it was even claimed that Warner Bros told content creators to place the disclosures “below the fold” so that they could only be seen if the full video description was manually expanded. Plus, within the content of the video, some of the paid contributors didn’t disclose the financial relationship at all, only mentioning that they received the game early. Considering the severity of the allegations, particularly considering that Warner Bros had pre-approval on all videos, this reaction from FTC seems pretty tame:

Warner Bros. won’t be paying a fine this time. The company only needs to ensure that it doesn’t misrepresent relationships in the future. Additionally, the company must engage in education efforts with influencers it hires to ensure that they understand how to properly disclose. Warner must also withhold payment from those that fail to comply.

Should Warner Bros. violate the FTC’s order, it would be subject to civil penalty. “Warner Bros. Home Entertainment always strives to be transparent with our customers and fans when working with social influencers, and we are committed to complying with the related FTC guidelines,” a company representative told GameInformer via email.

Influencer marketing continues to grow, and in theory I have no problem with it. In the same way that brands pay for banners on websites or billboards by the highway, they are always seeking to get consumers to buy their goods. It actually seems much more natural for content creators to simply talk about a product or game as a form of advertising. However, it has to be disclosed so that people know that what they’re consuming is actually a paid advertisement.

Warner Bros will have probably learned their lesson from this, but I’m curious to see if we don’t see further clampdowns on YouTubers and other influencers in the future.

 

Last Updated: July 12, 2016

23 Comments

  1. Umar

    July 12, 2016 at 10:02

    Pewdiepie? More like PewdieLIE…huh huh, ammirite? Har Har Har.

    Reply

  2. Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

    July 12, 2016 at 10:09

    WB should’ve saved this idea for Arkham Knight

    Reply

    • Greylingad[He Charges!]

      July 12, 2016 at 10:10

      “Today we are playing a slide show of Arkham Knight, running on PC”

      Reply

      • Pariah

        July 12, 2016 at 10:11

        I thought it was a gif loading

        Reply

        • Greylingad[He Charges!]

          July 12, 2016 at 10:12

          HAHAHAHA!!! That’s what everybody said when they first got it…

          Reply

      • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

        July 12, 2016 at 10:12

        Here we have Batman use a skill he learned from Maritian Manhunter, teleporting through the floor

        Reply

        • Greylingad[He Charges!]

          July 12, 2016 at 10:13

          Here we have blocks, where we expect textures to load, give it a minute….There we go, see, it’s Harley Quinn….

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

            July 12, 2016 at 10:14

            I’ll wait the whole day to see her blocks load…. wait what?

          • Greylingad[He Charges!]

            July 12, 2016 at 10:14

            “blocks” I know exactly what you mean!

    • Captain JJ off track

      July 12, 2016 at 10:18

      They did, but it’s still loading.

      Reply

  3. Captain JJ off track

    July 12, 2016 at 10:17

    I remember when I still had respect for Warner Brothers.

    Reply

  4. Umar

    July 12, 2016 at 10:19

    Weird innit?…Shadow of Mordor was a bloody good game, it didn’t need any shady marketing.

    Reply

    • Pariah

      July 12, 2016 at 10:24

      The marketing cast quite a shadow on it, right?

      Reply

      • Krabby Paddy

        July 12, 2016 at 10:32

        All just to try open mordors to more money.

        Reply

    • Captain JJ off track

      July 12, 2016 at 10:29

      Though I did enjoy Shadow of Mordor a lot, it just had too much of the Batman games in it. Mechanically it’s not a bad thing, but the reused animations just felt a bit lazy to me.

      Reply

      • Greylingad[He Charges!]

        July 12, 2016 at 10:32

        I don’t know hey, the brutality of Shadow of Mordor was intense…

        Reply

        • Captain JJ off track

          July 12, 2016 at 10:34

          Yea, that was cool. I agree. But some of the orc movement animations were 100% reused from Batman, which just completely broke the immersion of the game for me. Because when I looked at them from afar all I saw was Batman thugs.

          Reply

          • Greylingad[He Charges!]

            July 12, 2016 at 10:43

            That’s true, but then again, I gave the BM games a bit of a break before I started playing SOM, so it didn’t bother me that much, now that I’m playing Arkham Knight, it’s animations are annoying me…

          • Captain JJ off track

            July 12, 2016 at 11:10

            Hmm. Yes. I played Mad Max the other day…the only thing that kept me going was the cars and the road fights, the rest got tired quickly.
            It’s a fun game though. None the less.

          • Greylingad[He Charges!]

            July 12, 2016 at 11:27

            Oh yes! Those cars were awesome, but the constant drive to this point, get that, drive back, put it in this gameplay hasn’t aged well…

      • Matthew Holliday

        July 12, 2016 at 11:05

        It was a LotR mod for batman.
        Not complaining though, the combat system for batman is pretty much in the sweet spot between skill and fun, it could have perhaps been a bit more difficult though for shadow of mordor.
        going into a big fight in a stronghold, thinking, “how high can i get my multiplier?” instead of “how do i survive?” is a bit silly.

        Reply

        • Captain JJ off track

          July 12, 2016 at 11:09

          ^ I can completely agree with you there. 😀

          Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad has Been Delayed Until 2023

According to a Bloomberg report, various sources familiar with the development have said t…