Deception is in the tiny details

 

Zoie Lambert

zl963419@ohio.edu

    Have you ever looked up the best coffee brands to taste or the best jeans to wear this fall in the goggle search? I have and usually when I press a link to BuzzFeed or Vogue they provide a listicle of products with a link to purchase them.  I have unknowingly never wondered until now if these news outlets who pride themselves on independence and transparency were practicing ethics when promoting these brands. Was the news outlet paid to support the brand or was the choice to promote the brand made independently? Because the advertisement was implicit. The news outlet made it seem it was a part of the content, however, my question was answered when I read a Vogue article titled  "What is raw Denim and How to Buy it?".  Before showing the denim it reads in tiny text, "all products featured on Vogue are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission."

     The money they are earning stems from the practice of affiliate marketing which Niel Patel "defines as promoting other people’s products in return for a small commission for each sale. You’ve probably seen headings marked “affiliate link” or “sponsored post” on many of the websites you visit". These disclaimers or affiliate links are hidden or seemingly placed in the content so well that you will skip over it if you do not pay attention.  This form of native advertising is deceptive and manipulates the public. However, some news outlets do not do this. 

The Wirecutter "The 8 Best Water Bottles" article

    The Wirecutter a subsection of the New YorkTimes uses a similar sponsored disclaimer like Vogue at the top of their website. Moreover, what distinguishes them is their attention to the principles of trust and credibility. In one of their articles losing the best water bottles of 2021, they disclosed how they tested and picked the water bottles and why they should be trusted. The article explains under the section "Why you should trust us" that "Since we first created this guide in 2014, the Wirecutter hive mind has tested more than 100 different bottles, over many hundreds of hours in our day-to-day lives." This extra step to be transparent should be the standard when news outlets utilize affiliate meetings or native advertising. 

    Many of the disclaimers are unreadable or in the tiny text that many users will avoid. Though there has not been much research not been done on unreadable disclaimers they do exist. In the Vogue example, the disclaimer was written in a small text compared to the bigger-sized text used in the article. This is deceptive act can be compared to the terms and conditions, which are always long and in tiny text. The Guardian reported that "Nearly six in 10 (58%) adults said they would rather read an instruction manual or their utility or credit card bill than go through online terms, and more than one in 10 (12%) would rather read the phone book." Companies know this and create contracts with hard terms of up to 20,000 words. We can not filter every misleading detail on the internet and company's know this.