One example shows a woman locked away, with a burglar between her and the main character of Playrix's games, with the player challenged to remove the pins in a way that reunites the couple without them encountering the burglar.Īt the bottom of each video, text notes that: 'Not all images represent actual gameplay.' Images of the ads in questionĪccording to the ASA, seven people complained about these ads, claiming they were misleading. Authorities like the ASA have a constant uphill battle to fight against fraudulent advertising.The Advertising Standards Agency has banned two Facebook ads for Playrix's casual hits Homescapes and Gardenscapes.īoth ads, posted in March and April this year, depicted a pin puzzle mini-game. The mobile gaming industry is no stranger to misleading advertising and outright fraud in its games. Maybe a couple dozen levels in the thousands of levels of gameplay that most users will never see. While the levels in the ads are technically in the game, they make up a statistically negligible amount of the gameplay. “Because the ads were not representative of the games they were purported to feature, we concluded that they were misleading.”

And you wouldn’t be alone as the UK Advertising Standards Authority has banned Playrix ads and ordered that they are not to be used again.

You’re probably also aware that those advertisements do not represent the game at all, as they are match three games similar to Bejeweled or Candy Crush. They’ve become something of a meme in recent months as they rather humorously show a user pulling pins and failing spectacularly at what appears to be rather simple puzzles. If you’ve been on the internet recently or played mobile games you are likely familiar with the ads for games like HomeScapes and GardenScapes. Those annoying puzzle ads you see on Facebook.

Gardenscapes misleading ads