FTC Slams Warner Brothers for Shadow of Mordor Promotions

Two years ago, a minor controversy shook (well, more like firmly rattled) the game journalism world, when it was discovered that Warner Brothers was doing in a less-than-honest scheme: they were paying Youtubers upwards of five figures to make videos on Shadow of Mordor, advertising the game for them to their army of followers. Now, that's not unusual: product makers seek partnerships all the time, and a single 5-minute video for a 5-figure amount of money is a deal I'd make at the drop of a hat. The problem was that while some YouTubers were pretty honest with the fact those videos were paid advertisements by the folks at Warner Brothers, others weren't as forthright, and Warner Bros didn't do the honest thing and force them to be as explicit as the FTC would prefer.

It's been two years since then, but the Federal Trade Commission's investigation has finally bore fruit. Kind of.

“While the videos were sponsored content – essentially ads for Shadow of Mordor – the FTC alleges that Warner Bros. failed to require the paid influencers to adequately disclose this fact, The FTC also alleges that Warner Bros. 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.”

So, Warner Brothers and the FTC settled. And while Warner Brothers wasn't fined for their transgressions--the FTC used the case as a precedent so no company, Warner Brothers or otherwise, can get away with misleading consumers with a lack of disclosure now or in the future. Which is great, considering we're having something of a problem with disclosure these days and Youtube is in desperate need of some kind of regulation... even if Youtube itself is unwilling to offer it.

So that should hopefully curb issues with failing to disclose this kind of information. But, I won't cross my fingers...