Deutsch LA told staff to tweet about the PS Vita as fans — the FTC called it deception

For the PlayStation Vita launch, Sony's agency Deutsch LA ran the 'Long Live Play' campaign. Inside the agency, a company-wide email asked employees to tweet about the new handheld and create a buzz. Staff obliged from personal accounts: 'PS Vita [ruling] the world. Learn about it!', 'Got the chance to get my hands on a PS Vita and I'm amazed how great the graphics are. It's definitely a #gamechanger!' Nothing disclosed that the fans doing the tweeting worked at the agency behind the campaign.

The FTC treated the tweets as undisclosed endorsements — deceptive under Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Dot Com disclosure guides, because a 'material connection', the employment, was hidden. The complaint, announced on 24 November 2014, also charged that Sony's ads exaggerated 'game changing' features of the console. On 31 March 2015 the Commission approved final consent orders, 5–0: Sony owed buyers a $25 refund or $50 voucher; Deutsch LA was barred from presenting endorsers as independent consumers and ordered to disclose material connections.

The case is remembered as the FTC's first enforcement action against undisclosed endorsements on Twitter, and the agency used it to set the bar: #ad, #sponsored or #client within a tweet is enough. Personal accounts are no exemption — the rules follow the paycheck.