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| | | Native Advertising | |
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< | N-A’s encompass “advertising and promotional messages that match the design, style, and behavior of the digital media in which it is disseminated.”[2]. Figure 1 displays an recent example of an N-A on Forbes. The boxes on either side are advertisements for SAP. The “article” in the middle is also an advertisement for SAP, though no one would blame you for not noticing. The “article” is an N-A, and a recent study showed that as many as 88% of people cannot tell that it is an advertisement.[3]. N-A’s were used as an advertising tactic by 73% of online publishers in 2013.[4]. According to Adam Ostrow, Chief Strategy Officer at Mashable, N-A’s possess a click-through rate 8 to 15 times higher than traditional display advertisements.[5] While Ostrow sees this as an optimistic sign of “consumer engagement” with brands, research suggests that consumers simply do not realize they are looking at advertisements. If they did, one can imagine they would prefer to avoid them. | >
> | N-A’s encompass “advertising and promotional messages that match the design, style, and behavior of the digital media in which it is disseminated.”[2]. Figure 1 displays an recent example of an N-A on Forbes. The boxes on either side are advertisements for SAP. The “article” in the middle is also an advertisement for SAP, though no one would blame you for not noticing. The “article” is an N-A, and a recent study showed that more than half of people cannot tell that it is an advertisement.[3]. N-A’s were used as an advertising tactic by 73% of online publishers in 2013.[4]. According to Adam Ostrow, Chief Strategy Officer at Mashable, N-A’s possess a click-through rate 8 to 15 times higher than traditional display advertisements.[5] While Ostrow sees this as an optimistic sign of “consumer engagement” with brands, research suggests that consumers simply do not realize they are looking at advertisements. If they did, one can imagine they would prefer to avoid them. | | |  Figure 1 | |
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< | Publishers view N-A’s as the savior of a media industry that has struggled to generate reliable revenue streams in the Internet society. In truth, however, a media that stands in the way of a fully informed citizenry is not worth saving. N-A’s fall neatly into a long line of destructive advertising tactics that exploit consumers, degrade public trust in journalism, and cheapen the media’s vital role as democratic society’s “organ of truth, [following] no caucuses but its own convictions” – that inviolable standard once set by Joseph Pulitzer. Put simply, readers must be able to decipher whose interests editorial content is serving, and corporations are not at liberty to piggyback on the public trust that reputable journalists past and present have earned from readers. | >
> | Publishers view N-A’s as the savior of a media industry that has struggled to generate reliable revenue streams in the Internet society. In truth, however, a media that stands in the way of a fully informed citizenry is not worth saving. N-A’s fall neatly into a category of destructive advertising tactics that exploit consumers, degrade public trust in journalism, and cheapen the media’s vital role as democratic society’s “organ of truth, [following] no caucuses but its own convictions” – that inviolable standard once set by Joseph Pulitzer. Put simply, readers must be able to decipher whose interests editorial content is serving, and corporations are not at liberty to piggyback on the reputations that reputable journalists past and present have earned from readers. | | |
The Guidelines | | | The Path Forward | |
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< | Although a positive step toward protecting consumers from manipulation, the FTC Statement also reeks of a federal agency that has not fully come to terms with the nature of digital media. An N-A is not akin to a newspaper ad – it exists in a space where content migrates rapidly. Within hours of the article referenced in Figure 1 being posted, it showed up on dozens if not hundreds of other sites and news aggregators – many of which are outside the reach of FTC regulation. These sites rarely differentiate between native advertising and organic content; they will simply describe the article as originating from Forbes. Thus, even if we assume that slapping the phrase “Sponsored by X” on top of an N-A is sufficient to inform consumers about the nature of the source – and, again, the research shows that it is not – it is nonetheless an insufficient solution for consumer protection in the Internet age. | >
> | Although a positive step toward protecting consumers from manipulation, the FTC Statement also reeks of a federal agency that has not fully come to terms with the nature of digital media. An N-A is not akin to a newspaper ad – it exists in a space where content migrates rapidly. Within hours of the article referenced in Figure 1 being posted, it showed up on dozens if not hundreds of other sites and news aggregators – many of which are outside the reach of FTC regulation. These sites rarely differentiate between native advertising and organic content; they will simply describe the article as originating from Forbes. Thus, even if we assume that slapping the phrase “Sponsored by X” on top of an N-A is sufficient to inform consumers about the nature of the source – and the research shows that it is not – it is nonetheless an insufficient solution for consumer protection in the Internet age. | | | | |
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< | The simple reality is that both the fluid nature of digital environments and the particular manner in which consumers digest information online render N-A’s a wholly unacceptable practice under Section 5. If corporations want to raise awareness about their brand, they should do so through the traditional display mechanisms that consumers know are advertisements or on their branded websites and social media pages. True, many consumers will rationally choose to avoid viewing these advertising forms – but that is their right as free citizens. Brands are not entitled to our attention or patronage – it is their burden to earn it. | >
> | The simple reality is that both the fluid nature of digital environments and the particular manner in which consumers digest information online render N-A’s a wholly unacceptable practice under Section 5. If corporations want to raise awareness about their brand, they should do so on their own websites and social media pages or through traditional display mechanisms that do not intentionally replicate editorial content. True, many consumers will rationally choose to avoid viewing these advertising forms – but that is their right as free citizens. Brands are not entitled to our patronage – it is their burden to earn it. | | |
[1] Sydney Ember, F.T.C. Guidelines on Native Ads Aim to Prevent Deception, N.Y. Times (Dec. 22, 2015), http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/23/business/media/ftc-issues-guidelines-for-native-ads.html?_r=2. |
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