Ad description
Two ads for Top War, an online game, seen in August 2022:
a. A paid-for TikTok ad featured a video that showed, in the top right-hand corner, a man playing Top War as he narrated the game footage, which was shown in the remainder of the video. The narration was also displayed as on-screen text. The footage depicted a car cutting down trees, driving into other vehicles and destroying them. Soldiers on the man’s car were shown fighting other soldiers, merging and then creating other vehicles. The man said at the end of the video, “This is a military strategy game called Top War. You can merge soldiers, vehicles and more to upgrade them to help expand your army!”
b. A second paid-for TikTok ad featured a video that showed, a woman speaking into headphones. Beneath her was an image of a tweet that said, “Bro I played top war and the ads are nothing like the game”. The woman said, “I got really excited about Top War. Everyone is saying that it is nothing like the ads and so I am going to try it out today”. The ad then showed animated game footage and the woman appeared in the bottom right-hand corner of the video and she narrated the video. Soldiers were shown fighting, merging and taking land. The woman said at the end of the video, “So Top War looks just like the ads. And it is a super casual game. But you also get to use war strategy, which is obviously super fun. Ten out of ten recommend.”
Issue
Two complainants, who understood that the footage in the ads was not representative of the game, challenged whether the ads were misleading.
Response
Rivergame Ltd t/a Top War did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
TikTok said that the ads had been removed at Top War’s request on 13th October 2022 and were no longer showing.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Top War’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so and must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product.
Both ads showed people, ostensibly, playing a game and narrating the footage as it proceeded. In ad (a) the man said that the game involved merging soldiers and vehicles to help expand an army, all events that took place in the ad. In ad (b) the woman said that some people had complained that the ads for Top War did not reflect the actual gameplay. She then later confirmed that the ads had depicted actual gameplay. Therefore, we concluded that consumers would understand that the footage in the ads was taken directly from Top War and would be reflected in the game if they downloaded it.
The ASA understood that while Top War did involve the movement, merging and fighting of troops, the in-game footage in the ads was not representative of the product. Specifically, the locations presented in the ads, the speed of the combat and how units fought and merged did not take place in the actual game. In addition, the graphics in the ads did not accurately reflect the actual presentation of the game. On that basis the ads exaggerated the performance of the game and were misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product. (Exaggeration).
Action
The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Rivergame Ltd t/a Top War to ensure that ads did not misleadingly represent or exaggerate the performance of their product. We referred the matter to the CAP compliance team.
