Misleading and Harmful Mobile Game Advertising on Facebook

Abstract

Misleading marketing practices have become increasingly common in advertisements for mobile games. To investigate this phenomenon, this study takes an explorative, in-depth approach and analyses a selection of 60 advertisements shown on Facebook, comparing them to the 12 mobile games they represent. The results reveal that the problematic aspects can be roughly divided into three main categories: misleading content, harmful or offensive content, and omission of information. All main parts of a game, including audiovisuals, gameplay, user experience, and narrative, can be portrayed in a deceptive way. Furthermore, advertisements feature content such as domestic violence and objectifying women and omit material information such as the existence of in-app purchases. The results were reflected with UK advertising industry self-regulation code which showed that regulation can counter most of the discrepancies. However, in practice the regulatory system currently targets only individual advertisements, has limited effect, and has not been able to turn the trend.