Recognizing Advertorails

Know what an advertorial is? Do your students? You probably can guess. The concept has been around for decades: Design an ad so that it looks more like a positive editorial opinion or a review. Or pay a writer to talk specifically about a company. In print that’s easier to pick out. In a magazine like Time the advertorials are usually in the center of the magazine and have a different kind of border or layout signifying that they are not part of the usual magazine content. But how about in the blogging world? How can you spot an advertorial? How much disclosure is appropriate? What degree of involvement with advertorializing does it take for influential bloggers lose credibility? For a rather facetious look at this looming issue take a look at A Modest Blogging Proposal that advocates that we could all curry favors by becoming walking, talking, blogging advertorials. Might make a great real world writing project.