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FTC warns board game content creators, publishers to disclose relationships

boardgamewire.com

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Re: FTC warns board game content creators, publishers to disclose relationships

#51

Post by srcreigh »

Xeoncross wrote: post #23
jallen_dot_dev wrote: post #7

To be clear, the FTC is warning all online influencers and not specifically those who receive free board games to review. It'd be wild if the FTC thought the problem of board game reviewers not disclosing this was big enough and egregious enough to warrant special action against them.

Of all the actual misaligned incentives out there, giving someone a free board game in exchange for them playing it and creating a review seems like a great thing. Someone gave you a $50 game and you created a free $500+ video about it encouraging others to take a break from screen time. I hope no one tells the FTC about paid Amazon reviews, they'd probably have a heart attack.

Sure, and if that is what was actually happening it'd be fine. It's just hard to know if its actually an ad (make positive video we pay you $5k and give you game for free and review what you say before you can post) or just "hey we made a game here's a free one tell people what you think of it".

Re: FTC warns board game content creators, publishers to disclose relationships

#53

Post by TylerE »

srcreigh wrote: post #51
Xeoncross wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of all the actual misaligned incentives out there, giving someone a free board game in exchange for them playing it and creating a review seems like a great thing. Someone gave you a $50 game and you created a free $500+ video about it encouraging others to take a break from screen time. I hope no one tells the FTC about paid Amazon reviews, they'd probably have a heart attack.

Sure, and if that is what was actually happening it'd be fine. It's just hard to know if its actually an ad (make positive video we pay you $5k and give you game for free and review what you say before you can post) or just "hey we made a game here's a free one tell people what you think of it".

Doesn't even have to be quite that insidious.

People who don't give glowing reviews don't get contacted the next time around.

In many of these niche communities I suspect it is far more about the perceived clout (Oh, hey, I get to play it months before you do!) than the actual financial incentives.

Re: FTC warns board game content creators, publishers to disclose relationships

#54

Post by chasontherobot »

nocoiner wrote: post #36
nocoiner wrote: post #28

Somehow, at some point in the last few months, I found myself reading a portion of a mid-1960s Federal Register that included capsule summaries of various small-bore enforcement actions the FTC took against misleading advertisers in the prior year - stuff like (and I’m making up illustrative examples here), say, a department store in Kansas City that put out an advertisement that omitted key information about a sale,…

One additional thought, on an item FTA: “I’d like to see Instagram offer more accurate tags/labels, as there is a literal difference between getting a cardboard box and receiving money to express an opinion, but it will do for now.” Is it no longer customary to send back or donate a review copy of a product? When I reviewed video games many decades ago, we normally sent back the review copy we (the publication) were…

hard to donate a used steam key

Re: FTC warns board game content creators, publishers to disclose relationships

#55

Post by squokko »

jallen_dot_dev wrote: post #7

To be clear, the FTC is warning all online influencers and not specifically those who receive free board games to review. It'd be wild if the FTC thought the problem of board game reviewers not disclosing this was big enough and egregious enough to warrant special action against them.

Well Lina Khan went after Meta for acquiring Supernatural for $500 million while Apple continues their trillion-dollar anticompetitive empire. So it wouldn't be that weird for the FTC to be focused on stuff that does not matter

Re: FTC warns board game content creators, publishers to disclose relationships

#57

Post by autoexec »

nocoiner wrote: post #28

Somehow, at some point in the last few months, I found myself reading a portion of a mid-1960s Federal Register that included capsule summaries of various small-bore enforcement actions the FTC took against misleading advertisers in the prior year - stuff like (and I’m making up illustrative examples here), say, a department store in Kansas City that put out an advertisement that omitted key information about a sale,…

You can look at their website and see some of what they've been up to recently and a lot of it is really good stuff. I just wish they were more aggressive about going after companies ripping people off and that the penalties were actually meaningful. No company should be allowed to get caught over and over again pulling some kind of scam while only getting a slap on the wrist each time.

There's some real low hanging fruit here:

https://search.ftc.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&affiliate=ftc_p...

https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&qu...

https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&qu...

https://search.ftc.gov/search?affiliate=ftc_prod&sort_by=&qu...

Re: FTC warns board game content creators, publishers to disclose relationships

#58

Post by stOneskull »

tombert wrote: post #31
Xeoncross wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> might be hard to trash-talk an entity that just gifted you... ...several grand Yes, especially if you want companies to follow suit.

Yeah, exactly! If Sony gave a free review copy of their new TV, and I spend my entire review trash-talking it, then Samsung might say "oof, let's not give this guy any review copies". I think stuff like this is inevitable to some extent, humans gonna human, but I think that the viewers of the video have the right to know about these potential conflicts of interest.

don't trash talk it. be honest. constructive criticism will be appreciated.

Re: FTC warns board game content creators, publishers to disclose relationships

#60

Post by autoexec »

jxf wrote: post #20
manuelabeledo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Doesn't apply to movies, TV shows, and music videos right? Don’t they disclose this in the credits?

Movies are exempt. Viewers of a movie know that the movie is entirely created content; no one thinks that if an actor says "I love Red Bull" that this is their personal opinion or an endorsement thereof. This isn't clear if an influencer says "I love Red Bull" on their Instagram feed; do they genuinely love it, or were they paid to say that? This is the distinction the FCC wants made clear.

I disagree that movies should get a pass here, but I do agree that influencers are a very different beast. Young kids especially are at risk since they can't tell the difference between advertising and content even when it's in the form of television commercial breaks now confuse influencers and youtubers for actual friends.
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