8 ms·

Homescapes and Gardenscapes ads banned as misleading

49 points by fbelzile 6y ago

viraptor 6y ago
I've seen those ads so many times and I wonder how much do they actually spend on advertising? Either the CPC must be really tiny for them or they're earning a fortune which offsets those ads... If they use candy crush gameplay and tactics, I suspect the latter.
- 0xy 6y ago
  All they need is a single whale and they can afford 50,000+ clicks. Most of these games have dozens of large whales and hundreds of mini whales. A player who ritualistically spends $10,000+ a month on your game is not that out of the ordinary (at a certain scale).
  - ipython 6y ago
    That is just plain depressing. How much money does it take to create and maintain one of these apps? I wonder if it would represent a good ROI for a non profit to create an app like this as a fundraising expense. Then all in app purchase clicks would at least go to a good cause instead of just purchasing yet another Lamborghini, expensive house, etc.
    - nefitty 6y ago
      Wouldn’t the non-profit have to take a risk in developing the app, without any guarantee it will be successful? The game market seems super competitive
- rtx 6y ago
  I am amazed by these marketing teams. You need some great media buying skills, to profitably sell these crappy products.
rightbyte 6y ago
There is no way the staff resonsible for the adnetwork has seen those and noticed that they were scams. I saw them everywhere. What adnetwork did they run on? The article sais Facebook but I most have seen them somewhere else. The adnetworks need to be held responsible for running scams when there is no due diligence what so ever. There is add for a fake Super Mario game running too.
- spzb 6y ago
  I've frequently reported those ads on Facebook as misleading scams. Doesn't seem to make any difference.
- SAI_Peregrinus 6y ago
  Unity ads runs them. Games using Unity's toolkit can have ads for other Unity-using games easily via this network.
arethuza 6y ago
YouTube's strategy for showing me ads seems to be to show me the same ad over and over again for months until I am totally sick of the product in question. For months it was BMW, who I wasn't going to buy a car from anyway, and then it was these games which I now passionately hate.
- spzb 6y ago
  Facebook's obsessed with showing me ads for some kind of plastic earplug for treating tinnitus and non-chafing underpants at the moment. What I don't get is who the heck all the people under the ad commenting about how great the product is are coming from. Is anybody that excited about buying something that they make a point to look out for the ad in future so they can comment on it?
  - arethuza 6y ago
    I am now tempted to start searching for anti tinnitus underpants just to see what effect this has on the adverts I get in future ;-)
  - ceejayoz 6y ago
    > What I don't get is who the heck all the people under the ad commenting about how great the product is are coming from. They're either bots, or paid.
  - C1sc0cat 6y ago
    I (Male in the UK) get a lot of adds for manscaping products - basically a shaver for your nether regions and a lot of those robovoiced portrait mode ones for bizarre niche tools.
- aeyes 6y ago
  YouTube (and Facebook, because it was mentioned in this thread) have a button in the ad which lets you mark it as "please never show me this again".
  - arethuza 6y ago
some1else 6y ago
Have seen a dozen of these ads this last week on YouTube, with new illustrations. I wonder what it's going to be like when they actually make the game they're selling.
mschuster91 6y ago
Finally someone is doing something against them. This crap has been around for at least since the 'rona started, they really put on a massive campaign in f2p games and Insta/FB.
dpcx 6y ago
As someone who's played both of these games in passing, they've recently added the "mini-games" from the ads to the game. Granted, you have to pass some number of levels between each of the mini-games, but they are in the game at this point. That said, I hate these ads. They're annoying and not representative of the game that you'll be playing in the slightest. I'm glad they're banned (in the UK, at least... maybe it'll make it across the pond eventually).
DanBC 6y ago
Here's the page for the ASA which explains why they banned the ads. https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/plr-worldwide-sales-ltd-g20-1061644-plr-worldwide-sales-ltd.html https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/plr-worldwide-sales-ltd-g20-1...
ben_w 6y ago
Why are they using these adverts in the first place? The game in the adverts isn’t complex enough to justify it not being the core mechanic of the actual product (unlike pre-rendered cinematic clips); and if it’s good enough to be a hook, it should be the core mechanic, and vice versa.
- me_me_me 6y ago
  because it works. And it must work extremely well since there are clones of it. Edit: To make game out of that would be hard enough since its custom animation make to look like game. Plus the make money on repetitive game-play, puzzles would not keep players hooked and paying to skip the grind.
  - xg15 6y ago
    > because it works. I mean yes, in the same way that drugs work.

49 points by fbelzile 6y ago

I've seen those ads so many times and I wonder how much do they actually spend on advertising? Either the CPC must be really tiny for them or they're earning a fortune which offsets those ads... If they use candy crush gameplay and tactics, I suspect the latter.

0xy 6y ago
All they need is a single whale and they can afford 50,000+ clicks. Most of these games have dozens of large whales and hundreds of mini whales. A player who ritualistically spends $10,000+ a month on your game is not that out of the ordinary (at a certain scale).
- ipython 6y ago
  That is just plain depressing. How much money does it take to create and maintain one of these apps? I wonder if it would represent a good ROI for a non profit to create an app like this as a fundraising expense. Then all in app purchase clicks would at least go to a good cause instead of just purchasing yet another Lamborghini, expensive house, etc.
  - nefitty 6y ago
    Wouldn’t the non-profit have to take a risk in developing the app, without any guarantee it will be successful? The game market seems super competitive
rtx 6y ago
I am amazed by these marketing teams. You need some great media buying skills, to profitably sell these crappy products.

rightbyte 6y ago

There is no way the staff resonsible for the adnetwork has seen those and noticed that they were scams. I saw them everywhere. What adnetwork did they run on? The article sais Facebook but I most have seen them somewhere else. The adnetworks need to be held responsible for running scams when there is no due diligence what so ever. There is add for a fake Super Mario game running too.

spzb 6y ago
I've frequently reported those ads on Facebook as misleading scams. Doesn't seem to make any difference.
SAI_Peregrinus 6y ago
Unity ads runs them. Games using Unity's toolkit can have ads for other Unity-using games easily via this network.

arethuza 6y ago

YouTube's strategy for showing me ads seems to be to show me the same ad over and over again for months until I am totally sick of the product in question. For months it was BMW, who I wasn't going to buy a car from anyway, and then it was these games which I now passionately hate.

spzb 6y ago
Facebook's obsessed with showing me ads for some kind of plastic earplug for treating tinnitus and non-chafing underpants at the moment. What I don't get is who the heck all the people under the ad commenting about how great the product is are coming from. Is anybody that excited about buying something that they make a point to look out for the ad in future so they can comment on it?
- arethuza 6y ago
  I am now tempted to start searching for anti tinnitus underpants just to see what effect this has on the adverts I get in future ;-)
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  > What I don't get is who the heck all the people under the ad commenting about how great the product is are coming from. They're either bots, or paid.
- C1sc0cat 6y ago
  I (Male in the UK) get a lot of adds for manscaping products - basically a shaver for your nether regions and a lot of those robovoiced portrait mode ones for bizarre niche tools.
aeyes 6y ago
YouTube (and Facebook, because it was mentioned in this thread) have a button in the ad which lets you mark it as "please never show me this again".
- arethuza 6y ago

some1else 6y ago

Have seen a dozen of these ads this last week on YouTube, with new illustrations. I wonder what it's going to be like when they actually make the game they're selling.

mschuster91 6y ago

Finally someone is doing something against them. This crap has been around for at least since the 'rona started, they really put on a massive campaign in f2p games and Insta/FB.

dpcx 6y ago

As someone who's played both of these games in passing, they've recently added the "mini-games" from the ads to the game. Granted, you have to pass some number of levels between each of the mini-games, but they are in the game at this point. That said, I hate these ads. They're annoying and not representative of the game that you'll be playing in the slightest. I'm glad they're banned (in the UK, at least... maybe it'll make it across the pond eventually).

DanBC 6y ago

Here's the page for the ASA which explains why they banned the ads. https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/plr-worldwide-sales-ltd-g20-1061644-plr-worldwide-sales-ltd.html https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/plr-worldwide-sales-ltd-g20-1...

ben_w 6y ago

Why are they using these adverts in the first place? The game in the adverts isn’t complex enough to justify it not being the core mechanic of the actual product (unlike pre-rendered cinematic clips); and if it’s good enough to be a hook, it should be the core mechanic, and vice versa.

me_me_me 6y ago
because it works. And it must work extremely well since there are clones of it. Edit: To make game out of that would be hard enough since its custom animation make to look like game. Plus the make money on repetitive game-play, puzzles would not keep players hooked and paying to skip the grind.
- xg15 6y ago
  > because it works. I mean yes, in the same way that drugs work.