Re: advertising locally

From: Joyce-Ann Gatsoulis <prahamag_at_mbox.vol.cz>
Date: Mon 27 Sep 1999 23:13:19 +0100

HAVAH HOPE WROTE:
>On the other hand, I would insist that any place I
>advertised do a story on the opening as part of the deal.

If glowing posts suddenly started appearing on this list
about Flycast, ClickZ, and pogo.com (all sponsors for this
site) would you trust this list any longer? I doubt it. You
might even spam it and complain about commercialism seeping
through the content. There's a good chance you wouldn't even
read it if you sniffed out (as readers do, sooner or later)
that such glowing posts were part of their advertising deal
with this list. Eventually you wouldn't be able to discern
posts that were paid for and "real" posts, and thus the list
would be of little use. You and others wouldn't bother
subscribing to the list, and then why would Flycast, ClickZ,
and goto.com sponsor it?

And if you think YOU can tell the difference between paid
articles and "real" content, but think general populace
can't, think again. Remember David Ogilvy's famous line "The
consumer is not a moron; she's your wife." People are ever
more immune to advertising the more media/advertising
outlets develop, particularly "hidden advertising" such as
paid articles.

I think you get my point -- Advertisers and media
publications that take payment for editorial content are
shooting themselves in the foot.

This idea that advertisers should not only request but
*insist* on a story -- even a factually correct, interesting
one relevant to readers -- is profoundly disturbing, and
goes against every ethical tenet in the advertising
business, not to mention the media business. To "lean" on
the editorial side of a publication and imply that your
adspend may be dependent on a nice article now and then is
no better. Furthermore, as an advertiser, I would be wary of
any publication willing to do such a thing unless they --
like this list -- make the difference between
sponsorship/advertising and content clear.

To sum up: If you want to advertise, then advertise. If you
want an article written: send press releases, convince
journalists why they should write about your site or product
or service, write posts on lists like this one that
journalists like myself read, or hire a PR firm to do it for
you. Just know the difference between advertising and
editorial.

Joyce-Ann Gatsoulis
central/east European correspondent,
Advertising Age International
<www.adage.com>





Received on Mon Sep 27 1999 - 17:13:19 CDT