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Figgycal on 21 January 2014
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Mr Puggsly said:
RawrJa said:
Mr Puggsly said:
Why is this a bad thing? MS is paying for advertising, no big deal.

If Youtubers are misleading people for money though, that isn't MS's problem.

It is bad because it is illegal. Youtubers are not to blame, MS is.


Paying someone to advertise and say good things about your product is not illegal. That's just how advertising works.

You ever see commericals where someone shits on a product? Ofcourse not, nobody would pay for that.

I'll repost my comment since you missed it:

OP is missing the bit that actually makes this news worthy: The arrangement as described might go against the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) guidelines for the use of endorsements in advertising, which demand full disclosure when there is "a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement."

Read the full article on ArsTechnica. Cinemablend's article is very comprehensive as well.

This could be illegal as according to the contract, participants in the promotion weren't allowed to mention that they were being paid for their endorsement. Which is a big no-no.