FC Barcelona has become the latest football team to face an Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) NFT advertising ban.
The advertising regulator takes action against a football club for displaying paid Google search results for NFTs sold at Sotheby’s. It bore the inscription “July 29, 2022 – NFt Johan Cruyff.” Watching the live auction is a necessity. The very first NFT masterpiece by FC Barcelona. The premiere date is July 29. Johan Cruyff’s “impossible goal” in 1973. Immortal and presented as an NFT exclusive.
The ASA questioned whether the marketing was deceptive due to the omission of hazards associated with the NFT, as well as fees and restrictions on ownership rights.
In 2021, Arsenal Football Club was fined the same amount for a series of ads that promoted its crypto fan token. At the time, the ASA said that the ads made crypto seem silly and didn’t make the risks clear enough.
In defense of Barcelona, it was said that NFTs were not financial products, so buying one shouldn’t be seen as an investment and shouldn’t have to follow financial rules. The club said that the terms and conditions were on its website, but because Google Ads has a character limit, it couldn’t be in the ad.
But the ASA replied that NFTs were risky and hard to understand because they were unregulated cryptoassets and customers needed to know enough about them before buying them. And while the ASA agreed with Barcelona’s claim that NFTs can be collected, it also said that NFTs can be bought, held, and sold as an investment.
Along with Barcelona, the ASA took action against two other cryptocurrency ads this week as part of its ongoing crackdown on such ads.
The first was for a Facebook ad for the cryptocurrency trading platform Crypto.com. The ASA said that the ad didn’t explain the fees or risks of NFT trading. Like FC Barcelona, Crypto.com said that buying NFTs was not an investment because the terms and conditions were only shown in ads.
The NFT project Turtle United NFT was also approved for a paid Facebook ad, but it didn’t answer when asked about it. The ASA said that it was “concerned by Turtle United NFT’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code.”
In March, the agency in charge of regulating crypto asked more than 50 advertisers to change their ads.
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