Are contemporary digital native advertising techniques ethical?

Yingjing Ye (1650338) May 13th, 2018

Native advertising is defined as a new type advertising matching the forms of the displaying platforms, mostly online platform, which can make the ads looks “natural” and avoid audience’s resistance to ads. ( Wojdynski, 2016) Interactive Advertising Bureau (2013) identified six types of native advertising including 1. In-feed Units (eg, news article sponsored by the advertiser), 2. Paid Search Units (eg, the Top ten Japanese restaurants in London showing on Google) 3. Recommendation Widgets (eg, the events you may like) 4. Promoted Listings (eg, the promoted list showed on Amazon) 5. In-ad (the ads linking to the offsite pages) 6. Custom / Can't be Contained (eg, hotels shown on the Instagram pages of interfrow ) (seen in appendix1,2,3,4,5,and 6) Regarding to the question “whether the native digital advertising techniques are ethical ”, there is no clear “yes” or “no ” answer. It usually depends on the ethics and operation of publishers (eg, Buzzfeed, Google or Bloggers) and advertisers (eg, Coco Cola or Zara)

Many opinions show that native advertising are ethical and beneficial to both audience and the advertisers. (Mani Gandham, CEO of Instinctive and Jonah Peretti, CEO of Buzzfeed, 2016 ) For example, many contents sponsored by advertisers but published on Buzzfeed or NewYork Times usually deliver knowledge to audience (eg, 11 endangered sea creatures sponsored by BT and Why the male model does not work sponsored by NETFLIX). Gandham(2016) also illustrates that in many case, native advertising plays a educating function to the public. In term of other categories of native advertising, the audience also usually received relevant information they might be interested such as the promoting lists of Amazon or the restaurants recommended by popular bloggers. Furthermore, before the social media influencers such as the popular bloggers or youtubers speaking for a brand, they usually have a basic understanding about the brand and the products. For example, a paid beauty youtuber recommending the “Top Ten foundations for women aging between 20 to 30” to her followers usually has moderate or good using experience for her sponsored products, because the poor performance sponsor product can damage her image and the trust of the followers.

However, there are also some cases suggesting the native advertising is unethical. They usually reflect the wrong information and unethical opinions promoted in the native ads misleading the audience. For example, in 2016, Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine in the world, was accused of unethical native advertising techniques resulting in the death of Wei Zexi. Wei Zexi, a university student, have used Baidu engine to search the best hospital for his cancer treatment. An online article posted by Wei before his death accused that Baidu delivered false medical information and recommended wrong hospital reducing his rate for successful treatment. Different from Google, Baidu showed nothing helping the audience distinguish the native ads (pay-for-placement results) from other contents. Therefore, audience usually trust the search results in favourable positions. (Yu, 2016) Consistently, the data of IAB shows that only 41% of respondents can clarify the native ads clearly. (IAB, 2014). However, New York Times (2014) argues that in some cases, unethical advertising techniques reflect on the untrue links between their products and some human desires, such as social statue or sex created by the advertisers (seen in Appendix 7 and 8) It usually results in seriously negative effects when targeting the children.

In conclusion, whether native advertising techniques are ethical depends on the operation and ethics of both publishers and advertisers. In a majority cases, native advertising is ethical and has an positive impact on our society. Furthermore, there are some suggestions contributing to more suitable and ethical native advertising techniques. Firstly, the publishing platforms should use the right headers such as “Sponsored Content” or “ads ” help audience distinguish the native ads from other editorial contents. ( AskJamieTurner, 2014) Appendix 9 and 10 show the good example of NewYork Times and Google. Secondly, the publishing platform companies such as Baidu should implement incentives to investigate and confirm that contents created by the advertisers are ethical are reliable avoiding the lessons of Baidu and Atlantic(Scientology native ad in 2013). Finally, the advertisers should never trick the audience avoiding the damage of trust and brand images.

Reference

Wojdynski, B.W. 2016. The Deceptiveness of Sponsored News Articles How Readers Recognize and Perceive. Native Advertising American Behavioral Scientist. 60(12), pp. 1475-1491

IAB 2013. IAB - Empowering the Marketing and Media Industries to Thrive in the Digital Economy. Available at: https://www.iab.com/ [Accessed 13 May, 2018 ]

Quora 2016. Is native advertising ethical?. Available at: https://www.quora.com/Is-native-advertising-ethical [Accessed 13 May, 2018 ]

Yu 2016. The Death of Wei Zexi. Available at: https://www.voachinese.com/a/3318168.html [Accessed 13 May, 2018 ]

AskJamieTurner 2014. Are Native Ads Unethical? Or Are They a Marker’s Secret Weapons Available at: https://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2014/10/08/native-ad-guidelines/ [Accessed 13 May, 2018 ]

Quora 2014. What is the best examples of an unethical advertisement Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-example-of-an-unethical-advertisement

[Accessed 13 May, 2018 ]