Playrix's Homescapes and Gardenscapes ads showed gameplay that did not exist

In 2020, mobile game studio Playrix ran user-acquisition ads for Homescapes and Gardenscapes across Facebook. The ads showed mini-game content — pinball-style puzzles, rescue scenarios and gameplay mechanics — that bore little relation to the match-three puzzles the games actually contained.

Complaints reached the ASA, which ruled in September 2020 that the ads misrepresented the gameplay and therefore misled consumers. Playrix argued the content was 'mini-games' that appeared at various points of the game, that a 'not all images represent actual gameplay' disclaimer covered it, and that Facebook's ad-length limits made fuller gameplay footage impractical. The ASA rejected all three defences.

The ruling banned the ads in the UK and noted that continued misleading advertising could be referred to Trading Standards under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. It became the defining 'fake mobile game ad' case, cited across the industry as the point where the hyper-competition for installs overtook the truth of what the games actually were.