Reflection 27 of 52: Do you know when you are reading an ad?
July 07, 2014
I am the
first to understand the need for media to sell ads to make money. Same goes for
all these “free” online services we get. Somewhere, somehow these businesses
need to make money or they won’t survive.
However, I am growing more and more concerned with how advertising is presented. Check out this story about a paid ad, dressed up to look like editorial, appeared on two major daily newspaper’s
websites in Canada. There was no identification these were purchased by the company
in question.
Rather
than lament the loss of journalistic integrity as we see in this article by
Jesse Brown in The Walrus – Nobody’s a Critic, I am going to focus on
how we all need to become more discerning consumers of information.
Here are
my 7 steps for checking the credibility of any story:
- First, accept there is a bias or point of view of any media and make sure you understand the perspective of any news source. Recognize you probably subscribe to that source because it confirms things you already believe or support.
- Scan anything you see in a magazine or newspaper (online or hard copy) to find teeny, faint references to Special Report, Promoted Content, Advertorial, Special Promotional Feature, and other such sneaky language as these are definitely paid ads. I counted up the number of pages in a local magazine that were editorial (still with ads on most pages) against the total number of advertising and unassuming advertorial pages. 78 pages of editorial against the total of 180. At least with Vanity Fair, the ad/editorial ratio is obvious. Most in this publication were thinly veiled adverts.
- If you don’t see a reporter byline that is another possible sign you are not reading editorial.
- If the item makes your eyes roll or seems over the top commercially, it is worth searching further for other points of view. There have also been cases where the reporter’s websites were sponsored by corporations they defended. Google, look for verification by scientific reports, check and double check if you just cannot believe what you are seeing or reading. Have your own sniff test.
- I have heard that even op-eds can be part of an advertising deal now. So if you read an op-ed and it does not seem particularly newsy or is blatant self- promotion, see if the organization has been running ads as well.
- Product placements or prizes on TV are almost always paid promotions. Do you think Ellen took that selfie at the Oscars with a Samsung by chance? Is that orange juice on the news desk there just because? Do all the judges on American Idol drink diet coke and coke zero off the set?
- If you see a logo on a corner of a page or ads below an article quoting someone from that company… alarm bells!
Long gone
are the days when we just believed what was on the 6 o’clock news or in the
daily press. Even Walter Cronkite wanted us to be more savvy sifters. (Click here to read Cronkite's "How to Read a Newspaper".)
Oh Walt,
if it were only that easy. Nobody likes
to be tricked by hidden ads, it hurts the credibility of the news source and
the organization. Wouldn’t it be better
to do great ads and be transparent? Hidden ads still fool me, but I believe we
can all get better at distinguishing the paid from the non.
What do
you think? Have you been fooled and how did it make you feel?
Posts
1 comments
This is a great post. The world has changed so much and the line between editorial and advertising has blurred. The days of advertising and editorial being completely separated are long gone - and while we can (and I do) lament and complain about this -- it's a reality that we have to face. It's important to make sure you know what you are reading and identify if there is some type of hidden or unannounced agenda. I have read articles that highlight survey results and when I search who funded or ran the survey, I discover that it was a company that has a vested interest in that area and in the survey results. Survey results can be interpreted many ways and the responses are a direct result of how the questions are asked. As a communications professional - we are always discussing the credibility aspect of paid content (paid) vs. editorial (earned) and we recommend to our clients that while both are useful components of a marketing communications plan - that they commit to being transparent and credible about what they have paid for. You don't want to trick your community - it will backfire on you at some point. Thanks for this post, I am going to share it on all of my social media channels.
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