The Reading Room at the Global Worldwide Headquarters of Sneak Adtack is starting to fill up, so the hardtracking staff is offloading these ads ‘n’ ends.

Start with this piece from the New York Times:

Promoting Its Own Products, a Magazine Labels an Ad as News

 

 

CONTENT from advertisers that resembles editorial coverage, commonly called native advertising, is drawing heightened scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, which wants to establish guidelines for labeling it clearly. Now Shape magazine has drawn a rebuke for such content from advertising regulators for an unusual case in which it served as both publisher and advertiser.

In the September issue of Shape, a full-page article carried the headline “Water works!” under the heading of “News.” After citing many studies espousing hydration, and a warning from the Center for Science in the Public Interest against high-calorie sugary drinks, the non-bylined article said that about 20 percent of Americans did not like the taste of water.

But, according to the Times piece, “[t]he National Advertising Division, the investigative arm of the ad industry’s voluntary self-regulation system, which operates under the aegis of the Better Business Bureau, conducted [an] inquiry. Shape ‘blurred the line between advertising and editorial content in a way which could confuse consumers,’ the division stated in a ruling released last week.”

Ya think?

So we can all agree that the default mode of native advertising is deception, as MediaPost notes . . .

Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.