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An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term "advertorial" is a
blend A blend is a mixture of two or more different things or substances; e.g., a product of a mixer or blender. Blend Blend may also refer to: * Blend word, a word formed from parts of other words * ''Blend'' (album), a 1996 album by BoDeans * ...
(see
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsMerriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946. In printed publications, the advertisement is usually written to resemble an
objective Objective may refer to: * Objective (optics), an element in a camera or microscope * ''The Objective'', a 2008 science fiction horror film * Objective pronoun, a personal pronoun that is used as a grammatical object * Objective Productions, a Brit ...
article and designed to ostensibly look like a legitimate and independent news story. In television, the advertisement is similar to a short infomercial presentation of products or services. These can either be in the form of a television commercial or as a segment on a talk show or variety show. In radio, these can take the form of a radio commercial or a discussion between the announcer and representative. The concept of internet-based advertorials is linked to
native advertising Native advertising, also called sponsored content, is a type of advertising that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears. In many cases it functions like an advertorial, and manifests as a video, article or editorial. ...
; however, whether the two terms are synonymous is contested.


Types

Advertorials can be classified into three types: * Image advertorials: The organization running the advertisement wants to produce a favorable view of the organization or its products among the readers. * Advocacy advertorials: The organization wants to explain their view of a controversial subject. * Journalism advertorials: The organization wants to attract media attention to a subject or themselves. Their goal may be inspiring independently written stories about their area of interest, to get quoted in related stories, or to influence how journalists will write about a subject in the future.


Publications

Advertorials differ from traditional advertisements in that they are designed to look like the articles that appear in the publication. Most publications will not accept advertisements that look exactly like stories from the newspaper or magazine they are appearing in. The differences may be subtle, and disclaimers—such as the word "advertisement"—may or may not appear. Sometimes terms describing the advertorial such as a "special promotional feature" or "special advertising section" are used. The tone of the advertorials is usually closer to that of a
press release A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...
than of an objective news story. Advertorials can also be printed and presented as an entire newspaper section, inserted the same way within a newspaper as store fliers, comics sections, and other non-editorial content. These sections are usually printed on a smaller type of broadsheet and different newsprint than the actual paper, along with different fonts and column layouts. Many newspapers and magazines will assign staff writers or freelancers to write advertorials, usually without a
byline The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably ''Reader's ...
credit. A major difference between regular editorial and advertorial is that clients usually have content approval of advertorials, a luxury usually not provided with regular editorial. A related practice is the creation of material that looks like traditional media (for instance, a newspaper or magazine) but is actually created by a company to market its products. One familiar example is airline in-flight magazines, which may feature reports about travel destinations to which the airline flies. In 1996, a UK based company called Parkway Publishing began publishing advertorials for advertisers. Parkway began enlisting clients and created PRPros to function as PR via advertorials with great success. The cottage industry is now widely used and considered very successful. Sheldon Schorr, the president of Parkway, was a leader in the crafting of advertorials and placed hundreds a year in scores of periodicals, especially magazines, utilizing quotes, brand references and trade enhancement, "meant to complement a company or persons' brand passively and more affordably than any other form of editorial content with much greater success than a press release". Historically, advertorials were less frowned upon and newspapers would even "show how magazine advertising is serving the public".


Television

Advertorials on television are longer than typical
television advertisements A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
. They are usually played on cable and satellite channels, which are less expensive than broadcast television. They may include a plot or story line to increase the entertainment value for viewers, and thus hold their attention longer. Daytime programs featuring light talk designed to draw in mainly a female audience often use advertorial segments which feature presentations of products, services, and packages by businesses. A representative of a business will have a discussion with a regular host, along with perhaps making a special offer for viewers.


Australia

In Australia, daytime programs featuring light talk and advertorials have been in television schedules since the late 1960s. One of the first was '' Good Morning Melbourne'' starring Roy Hampson and Annette Allison which began in 1967 followed by '' Good Morning Sydney'' in 1978, hosted by Maureen Duvall. Nine Network produced similar shows like ''In Sydney Today'' and ''In Melbourne Today'', later merged into ''Ernie and Denise'' in 1994. They were followed by a national program which began in 1992 on Network Ten called Good Morning Australia (formerly The Morning Show) with Bert Newton. This success of that show prompted the Nine Network to launch a competing program in 2002 presented by
Kerri-Anne Kennerley Kerri-Anne Kennerley (née Wright; born 22 September 1953) is an Australian television and radio presenter, actress and singer. She has more than 50 years in the industry, and is an inductee into the Logie Hall of Fame. Kennerley was a co-host ...
titled ''
Mornings with Kerri-Anne ''Kerri-Anne'' was an Australian morning television program shown on the Nine Network, hosted by Kerri-Anne Kennerley. It was broadcast on weekdays at 9am for two hours. The final episode of the series was on 25 November 2011. It was replaced b ...
'', later shortened to ''Kerri-Anne''. The Seven Network followed suit with a show starring
Denise Drysdale Denise Anne Christina Drysdale (born 5 December 1948) is an Australian television presenter, variety entertainer, actress, singer, dancer and comedian. She is often affectionately known as ''Ding Dong'', a nickname invented by fellow performer ...
called ''Denise'' before the debut of '' The Morning Show'' in 2007. Network Ten had ''
9am with David & Kim ''9am with David & Kim'' is an Australian morning show which premiered on Monday 30 January 2006 on Network Ten. It aired live from 9am - 11am weekdays, and was hosted by musician and former '' Getaway'' reporter David Reyne and former ''Nation ...
'' from 2006 which was replaced by '' The Circle'' in 2010. In November 2011, Nine Network cancelled Kerri Anne which was replaced by a new program titled 'Mornings' which premiered in 2012 presented by
Sonia Kruger Sonia Melissa Kruger (born 28 August 1965) is an Australian television presenter and media personality, who has been a prominent figure in the media for over 20 years. Kruger is currently the host of ''Big Brother Australia'' and a presenter on ...
and David Campbell. It was later rebranded as
Today Extra ''Today Extra'' is an Australian morning talk show, with an infotainment base, hosted by David Campbell and Sylvia Jeffreys. The show airs between 9:00 am and 11:30 am weekdays and follows the Nine Network's breakfast news program '' ...
which meant the show was tied closer to Nine's breakfast news program
Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...
. These programs feature a traditional daytime show format of light talk, health, beauty, fashion and recipe segments along with advertorial segments scattered throughout the show. The advertorials are usually hosted by regular advertorial hosts who interact with business representatives. The main hosts of the show usually do not interact with the advertorial hosts or the business representatives. Advertorials are regulated under the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, which has been registered by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.


India

In India, the nexus between cable television companies, popular news papers and political parties came to the fore front in a 2011 documentary made by
Prasar Bharati Prasar Bharati (abbreviated as PB; Hindi: ''Praśar Bharati'', lit. Indian Broadcaster) is India's state-owned public broadcaster, headquartered in New Delhi. It is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament and comprises the ...
which revealed that the ownership of seven of the ten largest media companies in India was connected to some political party or the other. This was given further credence to reports on
paid news An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term "advertorial" is a blend (see portmanteau) of the words "advertisement" and "editorial." Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946. In printed publications, t ...
that appeared in 2015-18 in selected Indian news papers and channels connecting the dark links between the two largest political parties BJP and Congress, black money and payments made to media channels to paint them in a better light. In 2018, a sting operation nicknamed "Cobrabost 136" by
Cobrapost Cobrapost is a non-profit Indian news website that was founded in 2005 by Aniruddha Bahal – the co-founder of Tehelka. It is particularly known for its undercover investigative journalism. Description According to Kalyani Chadha, Cobrapost ...
, an Indian investigative journalism agency showed videos of meetings held with the 15 largest media companies, who agreed to publish / telecast communally and politically motivated and misleading information as a campaign in return for payments, routed through advertising and PR companies.


United States

In the United States, locally produced daytime television rose in the mid-2000s as local television stations (especially those with the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
and Fox Networks, where NBC gave up the most programming time) saw network time on weekday mornings after 9am returned to local control and saw new national talk shows either fail or not attract the right demographic to a timeslot. Beginning with ''Daytime'' on
Media General Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch ...
station WFLA-TV in
Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
in the early 2000s, a new format featuring the structure of a traditional locally produced daytime show with the usual format of light talk, health features, beauty tips and recipe segments which was popular up to the early 1990s (when expansion of newscasts became a much less expensive, more dependable form of revenue) came into use. Some of these shows, such as
WKBW-TV WKBW-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios at 7 Broadcast Plaza in downtown Buffalo and a transmitter on Center Stree ...
's '' AM Buffalo'' in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
, seamlessly made the transition from a traditional local talk show to a paid program with little notice. This type of program usually features light talk designed to draw in mainly a female audience, and then presentation of products, services, and packages by local businesses; for example a basement waterproofing system might be discussed by the representative of a company in that business with the hosts, along with perhaps a special offer for viewers. Like in Australia, to prevent any conflict of interest concerns with their counterpart local newsrooms, the hosts of advertorials have no communication with those personalities in the news department on-air, nor do they even mention any
breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
stories or perform a handoff to the newsroom for further details. In U.S. newspapers, for example, ExxonMobil purchased an advertorial positioned next to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' op-ed page every Thursday between 1972 and 2001.


Radio

On radio, advertorials can feature discussions between an announcer or a DJ and the representative of a business. The discussion may feature testimonials from customers or a personal endorsement from the announcer. The products featured can range from mobile phone/cable/satellite providers, insurance, financing, auto servicing, travel agencies, and upcoming concerts or music releases.


Australia

The " cash for comment affair" was an Australian scandal that broke in 1999, concerning paid advertising in radio that was presented to the audience in such a way as to sound like editorial commentary.


Legal issues

In the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority requires advertorials to be clearly marked as such. In one case, the Scottish newspaper '' The Herald'' published a feature titled "Professional Brief" that had been submitted by Glasgow-based French Duncan Chartered Accountants. According to a complaint, it did not clearly indicate that it was a paid advertisement. The newspaper argued that, because it was a "sponsored column" and it was indicated that the opinions expressed were those of the author, it did not have to refer to it as an advertisement. The ASA responded that, because payment was given in exchange for the publication of the columns and because the content was provided by the marketers rather than the newspaper, they considered the columns advertisements and required that they indicate as much. For magazines in the United States mailed at the publication rate, the Postal Service has regulations as to how to mark editorial and advertising.
Domestic Mail Manual The Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) is a document that lays out the policies and prices of the United States Postal Service (USPS). In legal parlance, it contains "the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service". Changes to the DMM are anno ...
states that under 18 USC 1734, "if a valuable consideration is paid, accepted, or promised for the publication of any editorial or other reading matter in a Periodicals publication, that matter must be plainly marked 'advertisement' by the publisher. When a single item of paid editorial or other reading matter occupies more than one page, it need only be marked 'advertisement' on the first page. The word "advertisement" may be included in a statement that explains why the material is marked 'advertisement.' Such a statement must be prominent on the first page of the material and the word 'advertisement' in the statement must be in bold or italicized print or otherwise emphasized so that it can be plainly seen. Editors or publishers who print such matter without plainly marking it 'advertisement' are subject to a fine of not more than $500.""DMM 707 Periodicals"


See also

* Advertising supplement *
Native advertising Native advertising, also called sponsored content, is a type of advertising that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears. In many cases it functions like an advertorial, and manifests as a video, article or editorial. ...
* Informative advertising * Indian paid news scandal * Mat release


References

{{media manipulation Advertising by medium News media manipulation Publishing