Fake BBC news article used to lure players to games site
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Version 0 of 1. The UK advertising watchdog has reprimanded a games website for using a fake BBC news article to try and attract players. RockyFroggy, a site where users can play games to win prizes, ran an advertorial using a web domain similar to that of the BBC and a style that mimicked the corporation’s news stories. The Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint that the website was misleading. RockyFroggy said it uses third party affiliates to run advertising for the site and had been unable to identify which partner had run the ad. The ASA ruled that the company broke the UK code relating to misleading advertising and clearly recognisable marketing communications. “We were concerned that [RockyFroggy’s] procedures had not been adequate to ensure that their ads were obviously identifiable as marketing material,” said the ASA. “Because the ad was not obviously identifiable as marketing material, we concluded that it was likely to mislead and was in breach of the [advertising] code.” |