{"id":98328,"date":"2016-07-12T09:15:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T07:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=98328"},"modified":"2016-07-12T09:16:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T07:16:31","slug":"pewdiepie-and-other-youtubers-paid-by-warner-bros-to-give-positive-game-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/98328-pewdiepie-and-other-youtubers-paid-by-warner-bros-to-give-positive-game-reviews","title":{"rendered":"PewDiePie and other YouTubers paid by Warner Bros. to give positive game reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Warner Bros. has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that the company did not disclose that it had paid prominent YouTubers to provide positive coverage of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2016\/7\/12\/12157310\/pewdiepie-youtubers-sponsored-videos-ftc-warner-bros\" target=\"_blank\">The Verge<\/a><\/strong> reports.<\/p>\n<p>Warner Bros. reportedly paid a number of influencers, including YouTube star PewDiePie, to give positive reviews of the game without divulging that the content was sponsored.<\/p>\n<p>Warner Bros. paid influencers thousands of dollars to post to social media about Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and to <strong>avoid negative coverage<\/strong> in their YouTube videos,\u00a0including the exposing of glitches or bugs.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the company asked that YouTubers &#8220;include\u00a0a strong verbal call-to-action to click the link in the description box for the viewer to go to the [game&#8217;s] website to learn more about the [game], to learn how they can register, and to learn how to play the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Although some YouTubers disclosed the sponsorship in the description of the video, the FTC has stated that <strong>this disclosure is not sufficient<\/strong>, as it is not available when the video is viewed via Twitter or Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Consumers have the right to know if reviewers are providing their own opinions or paid sales pitches,&#8221; said director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Jessica Rich.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Companies like Warner Brothers need to be straight with consumers in their online ad campaigns.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you think about Warner Bros. paying YouTubers for this type of content? Let us know in the comments and forum.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More gaming news<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Watch these car thieves use a laptop to steal a car\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/97892-watch-these-car-thieves-use-a-laptop-to-steal-a-car.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Watch these car thieves use a laptop to steal a car<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to How to get FTTH to come to your neighbourhood\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/broadband\/98286-how-to-get-ftth-to-come-to-your-neighbourhood.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">How to get FTTH to come to your neighbourhood<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to The best multiplayer PC games of 2016 (so far)\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/pc\/98046-the-best-multiplayer-pc-games-of-2016-so-far.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">The best multiplayer PC games of 2016 (so far)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Warner Bros. has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that the company did not disclose that it had paid prominent YouTubers to provide positive coverage of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":78298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[31,20296,18257,14676,20294,251,1713],"class_list":["post-98328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-entertainment","tag-active","tag-ftc","tag-paid","tag-pewdiepie","tag-sponsorship","tag-warner-bros","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}