PewDiePie and other YouTubers took money from Warner Bros. for positive game reviews.

[lordsynbios]

PieToast said:

JRPGfan said:

Is this really much differnt from advertisement?
Its not like these youtube reviewers are actual reviewers that work for a site doing it.

Pewdiepie isnt a reviewer.
Hes a "lets play" guy.... and he spoke well of a game? for a bag of money.... Im not surprised.

Paid sponsorship is not the issue. The issue here is that Warner bro. asked these youtubers to not disclose their deal and the bloody idiots that agreed to that deal.

That's not true:

"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.

Instead, according to the complaint, Warner Bros. instructed influencers to place the disclosures in the description box appearing below the video."

Taken from https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/07/warner-bros-settles-ftc-charges-it-failed-adequately-disclose-it

They advised them to disclose, just not in a sufficient manner. If they had specifically told them not to disclose they would be in a far worse position and wouldn't have got off as lightly as they have.