back to article YouTube stars shilled for Warner Bros, screwed up, and now the FTC has written an angry letter

Warner Bros has settled a complaint that YouTube celebs it paid to promote its video game online didn't declare that they were taking the entertainment giant's coin. YouTubers who agreed to publicize 2014's Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor were given cash on condition they produce a favorable review of the game, not show any …

  1. FF22

    Reap as you saw

    That's what happens with rampant ad blocking. Ads will not be marked as ads anymore, because then they will get blocked, and there will be nothing left to pay for the production and serving costs of content. So, creators and advertisers naturally turn to formats where the ad itself is the content, which then in turn can't be blocked.

    Don't expect anything to change till you keep systematically blocking ads that are clearly marked as ads!

    1. Rob F

      Re: Reap as you saw

      This happened in Italy especially with the prime time gameshows. They actually had to implement a law that had a visible statement on screen when they were actually advertising something. The presenter would just waltz into another area and start talking about said product or products. I recall finding it reasonable and not as jarring as diving in and out of adverts. They would just transition back into the show.

    2. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: Reap as you saw

      More like FFS22, amirite?

      You understand, right, that the use of paid product placement and the use of paid reviewers predates the Internet? It's an old form of propaganda, old enough that the name for a coin from an ancient debased currency from an obscure island nation became a word in the common parlance for a person who takes money to offer false testimony in favor of a product. You may have heard of something called . . . "shilling."

    3. Triggerfish

      Re: Reap as you saw

      Don't expect anything to change till you keep systematically blocking ads that are clearly marked as ads!

      I don't I block the viral content delivery system and privacy intrusion programs that are clearly marked as ads!

      Anyway anyone who watches those videos and doesn't have some doubt over the rabid fanboism and takes it as a balanced review, is probably not the most sophisticated player on the internet anyway, likely they ain't using ad blockers.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Reap as you saw, pay for data

      I'll stop using blockers when Ads are are small and don't collect data on me. Otherwise they need to start paying me for my data, it's my data, I generated it I should get paid. After all I pay for the site by giving them some of my data for "free", and in some cases that plus money because they deserve to get paid. Shouldn't everyone get paid for the data they create? Apparently not.

  2. Steve Knox
    Facepalm

    Reading this article 24 hours after watching Guru Larry's history of Driv3rGate

    "..given cash on condition they produce a favorable review of the game, not show any bugs or glitches, and recommend that users click a link to the title's official website.."

    *sigh*

    1. Steve78

      Re: Reading this article 24 hours after watching Guru Larry's history of Driv3rGate

      I started Driv3rgate on the old GamesRadar forums. What a crazy few weeks that was.

  3. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Windows

    "social media aces"

    Sounds like a painful infection, possibly "down there". Will antibiotics help?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hans Blix joke doesn't make much sense?

    Blix served as head of the IAEA for loadsa years, and then perhaps most notably was in charge of the search for naughty things in Iraq, finding - much to the ire of the ledaers of the Coalition of the Willing (TM) - diddly. Subsequently the Chillcott enquiry rather backs that up. Across all this service he cajoled and admonished the powerful to depressingly little effect, understandably since he had little actual power.

    The FTC actually carries a big stick when it chooses: they dinged Google for $22.5M a few years back. They can also order companies to repay consumers. But here instead they chose to say sternly "don't repeat this fraud" [so go find a new one?].

    1. Swarthy

      Re: Hans Blix joke doesn't make much sense?

      Not Hans Blix the person, but rather Hans Blix the marionette from Team America.

      "You're bustin' my balls Hans, you're bustin' my balls."

    2. Fatman

      Re: Hans Blix joke doesn't make much sense?

      <quote>The FTC actually carries a big stick when it chooses: they dinged Google for $22.5M a few years back. They can also order companies to repay consumers. But here instead they chose to say sternly "don't repeat this fraud" [so go find a new one?].</quote>

      Which IS part of the problem - NO PUNISHMENT for those who engaged in this odious behavior.

      Would it be nice if the head of Marketing were taken out, whipped, drawn and quartered, and castrated to serve as a deterrent to other Marketeers in the future???

  5. Efros

    A bit stupid

    as the game is actually pretty enjoyable.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    just give a couple of $$ to the Clinton Foundation and you problems will go away.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      IF she wins.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        IF she wins shillers for YouTube will be the least of your trouble

  7. John Lilburne

    I thought the FTC realized that ...

    ... the internet is about making Google money from fraudulent ads, drugs, people trafficking, terrorist recruitment and cat videos. Someone should tell them to back off and let the ad flow.

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