Search the internet to find examples of native advertising or other sponsored content. Could such content mislead consumers? Are companies responsible for ensuring consumers understand and can distinguish between sponsored content and other content? Explain.
Native advertising-articles paid for and/or written by a brand that appear on a publisher's site-has emerged as a powerful and popular new marketing content tool over the past few years. Media companies such as Buzz-Feed, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic have all invested heavily in the creation and distribution of native advertisements (also called sponsored content) on behalf of brands, with many charging more than $100,000 for a native advertising campaign.
Such sponsored content is designed to blend with the look and feel of the other content on a site, and written disclosures such as "Sponsored" or "Advertisement" are often hard to see even if consumers are looking for them. So it's no surprise that consumers often can't tell the difference between paid brand content and regular articles. Marketing content agency Contently recently surveyed adult consumers, showing them one brand- sponsored online content piece from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Onion, Buzz-Feed, or Forbes or an actual article on Whole Foods in Fortune. In four out of the six groups shown a native advertisement, a strong majority said they thought the ad was an article.