Proper Native Advertising

Will Heflinger

wh617717@ohio.edu

Native advertising is paid content that is published by a news source. It looks very similar to a regular post, but it is a promotion for whatever paid that publisher. Many times, these postings can be very confusing to readers who do not know that they are sponsored. Because of this, it can leave readers to look like this: 

Image via mikeklassen.net

If the news site is able to make it clear that the content that is being posted to their viewers that it is sponsored, I believe that it is ethical to continue to publish that kind of content. Some websites are very good at making it clear that the articles are sponsored. One case that does this very well is a sponsored article from The Onion.

The Onion is known for making very satirical news articles that seem very real when compared to real news articles from reputable sources. This article was sponsored by H&R Block and is about a woman who is taking a break from filing her tax forms after only filling out her name and address. It's a very small read and was posted around the time that people would normally do their taxes. The article is clearly marked as "branded content," and states at the end, "Brought to you by H&R Block." 

The Onion does not clearly say that the person in the story was using H&R Block to fill out her name and address, so it isn't blatantly saying that H&R Block is a superior product to anything else. It is just a humorous article. This is an ethical example of a news site posting a native advertisement.

Another good example of ethical native advertising was posted on BuzzFeed. Sponsored by Cancer Research UK, BuzzFeed posted an article called "Sunbathing: Expectation vs. Reality." Like The Onion article, BuzzFeed used humor in their article. This humor was used to show people the harmful effects that staying in sunlight for prolonged periods of time can do to someone. This kind of native advertisement is not harmful either. The top of the article clearly shows that it is a paid post and shows the company who sponsored this post as well.

The BuzzFeed article is also a good example of native advertisement because it is not trying to sell the readers any kind of product. All that the article is trying to advocate for is people paying attention to how much time they are spending in the sun. It's trying to spread awareness for this problem that people may encounter.

Native advertising is sometimes deceptive when it is handled improperly. If readers and publishers, alike, are extra careful, it can sometimes be humorous and informative.