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I was kind of shocked when I read the Piers Robinson article regarding propaganda in media and how there are consumers so unaware of the media biases constantly being thrown at them. Well of course a Russian news outlet/source would leave it's audience, who consciously chose to access the media channel for news information, with negative views on westerners. The media is biased in this direction, so the information is going to be presented in such a way to persuade their audience to fully invest and support their ideas. The sole purpose of propaganda. While scrolling through my news application on my phone, I stumbled across this entertaining article sharing the responses of foreigners, namely British, answering questions about the US election. While some answers are just people trying to be comedic, there are some interesting responses listed. There are a variety of perspectives, just as there are a variety in the USA it's due to the media outlets they choose to support. From what I gather, the British opinion of U.S. politics gained by the people who participated in the Buzzfeed article is similar to that of my own.

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The 2016 US presidential election is undoubtedly something that will impact every single country, in every corner of the world - perhaps none more so than the USA's closest allies.

Of course, one of these men was particularly popular among the Brits.

Hmmm. Sorry. Still friends though, right? 🇬🇧❤️🇺🇸

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We Asked British People What They Know About The 2016 US Election

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The 2016 US presidential election is undoubtedly something that will impact every single country, in every corner of the world - perhaps none more so than the USA's closest allies. Of course, one of these men was particularly popular among the Brits. Hmmm. Sorry. Still friends though, right? 🇬🇧❤️🇺🇸

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Controlled chaos: As journalism and documentary film converge in digital, what lessons can they share?

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Controlled chaos: As journalism and documentary film converge in digital, what lessons can they share?

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It was super interesting to read about the similarities of how filmmakers and journalists are creating and promoting their work online. The article noted that journalism is a more codified institution than documentary, with its own degrees and standards about what journalism “is” or should be. -kelly

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I was totally in the dark about "Native Advertising" before I read the piece by Brandon Einstein. I guess, like most people, I've become completely desensitized to the constant bombardment of advertisements across all media platforms. Maybe that's why I hadn't given much thought to why I seemed to be getting "tricked"more and more into clicking on disguised advertisements on the websites I frequent . Until I read this article, I hadn't given much thought to just how MUCH native advertising I was being exposed to on a regular basis (honestly, I didn't even know there was a name for it). This topic of N.A. is SOOOOO so relevant to our discussions of propaganda (and the possible shapes it can take) as well as thinking about what digital literacy in today's world entails. For those of you who didn't read this particular article, I found a pretty great post on copyblogger.com that gives some examples of native advertising in action. It really helped me to "visualize" the points Einstein was making about why Native Advertising is so difficult to recognize AND regulate. Take a look!
-Cynthia

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Despite all the hype, native advertising remains a fuzzy concept for most marketers.

According to our 2014 status report:

49 percent of respondents don't know what native advertising is

24 percent are hardly familiar with it

Another 24 percent are somewhat familiar

Only 3 percent are very knowledgeable

So, given the lack of awareness (and people mistaking it for other things, like sponsorship), we thought it would be a good idea to walk you through about a dozen examples of native advertising - and why they work.

Let's get going.

1. Print advertorials ... starting with this classic example

Let's start with the basics: the advertorial.

David Ogilvy's "Guinness Guide to Oysters" is the quintessential advertorial - like the "Guinness Guide to Cheese" above. When people talk about advertorials they usually mention this ad - like Brian Clark did.

Quick glance and it looks like editorial content:

Last week I explained what made this an advertorial (and next week I'll go in depth on how to create an online advertorial that converts), so let me just say that for this to work it should appear among editorial content and match the context design.

In other words, if you removed the brand name, it would fit the style of the publication.

The Guinness Guide, however, is a print ad, which leads to this question: would an advertorial work online? Let's see.

2. Online advertorials

This is IBM on Atlantic:

As you can see it's labeled "Sponsor Content." And except for the header and navigation bar, it is embedded among other IBM content.

Furthermore, the article is written by David Laverty, Vice President of Marketing, Big Data, and Analytics at IBM. Yet it matches the editorial and design style of Atlantic.

Is this an advertorial? No. There is not a clear call to action. It is, therefore, sponsored or branded content.

This piece from Gawker is a better example.

The article sits on the Gawker root domain and the design and editorial style match Gawker's.

It is labeled "Sponsored."

And just two paragraphs in, the intention of the sponsor is clear: WATCH OUR SHOW!

That is a clear call to action. The link drives you to the TBS website for King of the Nerds. This is an advertorial.

3. Online video advertorials

Naturally you can't talk about online advertising and not talk about videos.

Yes, an advertorial can be a video, which is exactly what The Onion has done through their Onion Labs creative agency.

Last week I showed you one of their videos for Southwest Airlines. Here's another one for a small, unknown outfit called Microsoft.

Microsoft gets the Onion treatment through this hilarious parody - but also gets its message across.

The call to action: give Explorer 9 a shot.

4. Advertorial ... gone wrong

I think it is safe to say the Atlantic's failed Scientology experiment embedded the term "native advertising" into our collective advertising consciousness.

Before their experiment, the earliest search for the term "native advertising" appears in February 2011, and it didn't climb into double digit searches until November 2012.

Here's the advertorial in question, one they pulled shortly after it was published:

Why did they pull it? This is what the critics claim Atlantic did wrong:

Used a mushy expression "Sponsor Content." It's an expression Dan Gilmour, writer for the Guardian, says publishers use when they don't want ads to look like ads.

The design layout looked too much like the design of Atlantic.

The editorial looks too much like Atlantic editorial.

They also forgot a clear call to action.

The joke, however, is on Scientology and not Atlantic. The religious organization is just a poor advertiser. In fact, I'm surprised Atlantic bowed to the pressure. If the ad was so sneaky, why did so many people complain?

Let's look at sponsored content now.

5. Sponsored content

Sponsored content is what a publisher creates and then a brand pays for. This is what The Onion did for H&R Block.

There is no clear call to action, so this content serves as brand awareness.

However, the article is embedded on a page surrounded by H&R Block banner ads.

Those banner ads contain calls to action, but good luck getting people to click them.

An offline example of sponsored content is Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. The insurance company Mutual of Omaha footed the bill for production. No call to action, just brand awareness.

6. Single-sponsor issues

In the print world a single-sponsor issue is when a single advertiser sponsors an entire issue of a magazine.

The most famous example occurred in August 2005 when Target bought all the ad space (about 18 pages, including the cover) in the August 22 issue of The New Yorker.

As Stuart Elliot wrote when he originally reported on the campaign, "The goal of a single-sponsor issue is the same as it is when an advertiser buys all the commercial time in an episode of a television series: attract attention by uncluttering the ad environment."

Again, in this case, no clear call to action, just brand awareness.

The way this works online is similar: a single sponsor buys all of the ad inventory on a website (or network of related websites) for a certain time period - a day, half a day, or even just an hour. Subway, for example, does this often on sports websites, usually timed to coincide with specific noteworthy events.

When our Director of Content Jerod Morris was running the sports blog Midwest Sports Fans, he would get such opportunities about once a month via the site's affiliation with the sports blog network YardBarker.

All it took to make happen was inserting a special code into the header, which would control the already-in-place YardBarker ads. Then all sites in the network that chose to take part would show the same ads from the same sponsor, and only those ads.

7. Branded content

The only difference between sponsored and branded content is that the brand creates the content for the publisher.

Here is a post by Dell on NYTimes.com. Notice all the signals that it is paid content.

As you can see, being precise about our terms is confusing because there is not an advertising standard when it comes to paid content labels.

On all the examples I've shared above so far, and the examples I'll share below, you'll see a variety of labels placed on native advertising. David Rodnitzky thinks they might violate FTC rules on deceptive advertising. But that's for another time.

You could lump branded playlists on Spotify into this category, too.

While the brand doesn't always create the music ( Sesame Street, however, did), they do curate the songs around a theme.

Jaguar USA, Abercrombie + Fitch, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (you knew he was a brand, right?) are great examples.

8. Product placement

A classic example of product placement was the bottle of Red Stripe in the 1993 film The Firm.

Or the Coke cups American Idol judges drink from.

Or the Reese's Pieces in the movie E.T.

But what about online examples?

I don't make it a point to read Vice (for reasons that will be clear here in a minute), but at one point in my research I wondered what they were doing in the native advertising landscape.

That's when I hit upon this gem (NSFW): Talking to Girls About the Good Ol' Number Two Taboo. It's a slideshow that amounts to a runway show for American Apparel, and a few other clothiers.

The clue was a comment on page one (otherwise I would've ignored the slide show and moved on):

Hmm. Ericha might be onto something. So I emailed the author of the article to find out.

She was a very polite Swede, Caisa Ederyd. I said I am a writer working on a series for native advertising and couldn't help noticing all the photos in her "article" were mostly of models wearing American Apparel clothes. I asked if American Apparel had paid for the slideshow.

She said American Apparel did not pay for the editorial.

"It's a Swedish editorial," Ederyd added, "And due to no budget in this project we had to turn to labels who lend us their clothes for free. Beyond Retro and American Apparel happened to have most items that our stylist wanted to use."

Okay, but then I followed up and asked her what she meant by "no budget in this project." As of publication, she has not responded.

This was a clear example of product placement.

While money may not have exchanged hands, favors did. There is a cost to American Apparel for giving away free clothes, albeit small. And in exchange they got exposure - the article was a popular post for at least 24 hours).

I've seen product placement in Onion pieces, too, like this one for the Canon PowerShot S1100 IS digital camera:

Did Canon pay for this ad? According to their advertising department, no. So why the precision?

If there was no commercial intent, why not just say "a Canon," or simply "a camera" for that matter? They have not responded yet.

Again, product placement is more about building brand awareness. There is no clear call to action. And unlike the H&R Block example, the content is not surrounded by Canon banner ads.

And now, a native advertising intermission

In the 2014 native advertising report I said that I didn't consider promoted content like we're about to cover below - such as sponsored posts in Facebook or promoted tweets - to be native advertising. I'd include in-feed ads and Google AdWords text ads in that claim, too.

The answer is in my native advertising definition:

Native advertising is paid content that matches a publication's editorial standards while meeting the audience's expectations.

Facebook and Twitter fail this definition because neither are publishers. The same is true with Google AdWords. They do not have a conventional editorial branch to speak of.

In Twitter's and Facebook's case, this is user-generated content that brands pay to reshare. None of these are pretending to be publisher-produced editorial content. In Google's case, it's just an advertiser paying to get in front of an audience.

That's plain ol' advertising.

On this point Dan Greenberg, CEO of Sharethrough, would disagree with me. I confess, after further research, he's got a point.

There is a sense that this species of advertising - sponsored posts and promoted tweets - is native because it appears in the social stream or among search listings. So, in the advertising taxonomy, promoted content would be related to advertorials. But, in my opinion, it has to be a different genus because it's not editorial.

In other words, I'm admitting I was wrong. Sort of. 😀

So, with that said, this intermission ends, and we get back to our last four approaches.

9. In-feed ads

You've seen these widgets that recommend content from "Around the Web."

For example, on Slate:

All these links do is push you to content on other publishing sites, with a few commercial mixed in.

Companies like Sharethrough, Outbrain, and Respond provide the network to run such ads, and advertisers pay for the clicks.

The following in-feed ad, however, is different. It has clear commercial intent.

The headline matches the editorial style of Slate, yet it is labeled "Sponsored." Click the link and you land on a British Airways branded page with videos about the evolution of the airlines as the best in class.

And finally there are the in-feed ads that drive you to another website. You know what I'm talking about.

The one simple exercise that burns belly fat.

The arrest records of your local city.

The words sit underneath the bold black title "Trending Around the Web" with "ADVERTISEMENT" sitting quietly to the right in a light grey font.

These ads have an editorial feel about them, as do the websites they drive you to - but clearly they have a commercial intent. Despite our distaste for these, I have a hunch they work for the advertiser. Because they have not gone away.

10. Sponsored posts (Facebook)

I could not find a good example of a sponsored post on Facebook. Is this because I am NEVER there? You more than likely know what I'm talking about, though.

Here's my best shot:

You can read up on Sponsored posts here.

11. Promoted Tweets

Pretty basic stuff here. Nice one from the same company who created Twitter.

Learn more about promoted Tweets here.

12. Google Text Ads (Search Listings)

Can you spot the ads?

Life on Bing is no different.

Learn more about Google text ads here.

Where does content marketing fall in respect to native advertising?

They are born of the same stock and have the same goal in mind, but the main difference is this: with content marketing the brand becomes the publisher.

Exquisite examples of content marketers:

We like to think we do a pretty decent job at Copyblogger Media, as well. Let's just say our business results consistently meet or exceed our expectations.

In each case the brand creates content that informs, educates, or entertains. It's how you build an audience that builds your business.

Native advertising, therefore, is paid content that drives traffic to that content.

And for a final comparison, guest posting is non-paid content that drives traffic to the content on your domain.

What's next?

Here's what you can expect next in this series.

First, an article on how to create an advertorial that converts.

Then, research concluding whether native advertising is profitable or not. We know it's profitable for the publisher, but is it profitable for the advertiser? I aim to find out.

And let me close with a recent quote from Brian:

Good native ads are content that's about the reader, watcher, or listener. But ultimately there's an actionable goal for the advertiser, like opt-in to get a free report from New Rainmaker (you'll see this happen from us soon)."

Want to discuss anything about this article? Share other examples of native advertising? Then join the discussion over on Google+.

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12 Examples of Native Ads (And Why They Work)

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Despite all the hype, native advertising remains a fuzzy concept for most marketers. According to our 2014 status report: 49 percent of respondents don't know what native advertising is 24 percent are hardly familiar with it Another 24 percent are somewhat familiar Only 3 percent are very knowledgeable So, given the lack of awareness (and people mistaking it for other things, like sponsorship), we thought it would be a good idea to walk you through about a dozen examples of native advertising - and why they work.

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The Convergence of Documentary Film and Journalism

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The Convergence of Documentary Film and Journalism

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Reading the Nieman Lab article on the increasingly blurred lines between documentary and journalism, I immediately thought of Vice as the media outlet I associate most closely with this phenomenon. Vice espouses a certain kind of participant journalism that is, in many ways, a descendant of the Gonzo journalism pioneered by Hunter S. Thompson in the 1970s. Like Thompson, Vice correspondents insert themselves into newsworthy or culturally significant situations and make themselves and their reactions part of the story--a lens through which to look at events.

This particular example is a 30-minute documentary report that sees the correspondent embedded in several military units in the Ukraine who are currently engaged in the conflict with Russia-backed separatists. The NIeman Lab article points out that the line between fact and opinion is often blurred along with the line between documentary and journalism, and that is true of this piece, which draws many conclusions about world politics based on conjecture rather than verifiable fact.

--Gregg

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We take you to the frontlines of Ukraine's proxy war between the West and Russia | VICE News

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VICE travels to east Ukraine to take a closer look at what international assistance really looks like, as the presence of NATO troops is driving tensions to Cold War-era levels.

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After reading about Walter Lippmann and communication theory related to propaganda I immediately thought of the NCAA. This article expressed using propaganda to promote behavior changes. They talked about doing this by having a barrier between the public and events. The NCAA comes and cracks down on schools and makes examples of them when a rule is broken. But many schools break rules during recruiting or by doing something unethical academically. Not everyone gets caught, but because of the publicity and repercussions of getting caught schools have slowed down the amount of cheating they do to get a competitive advantage. The NCAA was able to change behavior from coaches by making public a few events that occurred.
-Eric

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After reading about communication theory/propaganda and the public, the first thing that came to my mind are the Old Spice commercials I see on television. One of the commercials slogans is “Smell Like A Man, Man.”. The ad try’s to capture the male audience to make them feel less of a man if they do not use the products offered by Old Spice. Also, the commercials use male athletes or muscular actors to show what Man is suppose to look like. Communication theory, which is largely focused on the influence of propaganda states, “Through the use of propaganda, governments could ensure that a nation functioned to meet its goals, but could also lead to crushing individuals' ability to shape their own lives and their own consciousness.” In my connection, Old Spice as a company, is trying to shape the minds of its target audience forcing them to disregard their own thoughts about what it means to smell or look like a man. Ultimately, creating a reason to buy there products.

-Sam

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I, too, was struck by the use of propaganda to promote the latest installment in a movie franchise. For those unaware of the premise of the Hunger Games series, the story depicts an apparent post-apocalyptic society (named Panem, but presumably meant to represent the US). Following a rebellion many years before, the nation was split into 12 districts. Traditionally, a tribute from each district is chosen to participate in the "Hunger Games," a barbaric fight to the death designed by the Capitol to keep order among citizens. The article details a marketing strategy used to promote one of the films. The video was not a traditional trailer, but instead a PSA given by the President Snow, the fictional leader of Panem. It begins with the logo for "Capitol TV," the fictional network producing the video. This immediately captures audience attention; we know it isn't real, but we wonder how far this gimmick will be taken. President Snow speaks first of the hope and peace the nation has seen "since the Dark Days" and describes their "elegant system." He then transitions to a much darker tone, warning those who would rebel against him of the dangers they would face in doing so.

The power of this marketing strategy lies in its reliance on audience participation. Although we know this PSA is not real and that Panem does not exist, we are inevitably drawn into this world. Propaganda is a tactic widely recognizable, especially within a dictatorship as is depicted in the film. Thus, this adds a level of realism to the video.

The media I have chosen to highlight in conjunction is a screenshot from my Pottermore page. Harry Potter is another well-known book and movie series. Pottermore is a site created as a supplement and expansion of the Harry Potter universe. It allows fans to learn more about characters and to become involved in the series. This trend towards interactivity displayed by both franchises is a direct result of the increasing presence of media in everyday life. In a media-rich world, the only way to guarantee audience attention is to resort to this "genre-blending." This tactic is especially appropriate for series like the Hunger Games and Harry Potter that have more fantastical storylines.

- Annabelle

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In an effort to elaborate on just how crazy I believe the Hunger Games propaganda posters are, I opted to choice a piece of "mock" propaganda. I'd like to refer back to the beginning of the article on Forbes, making sure that you've watched the trailer for the film.  We know that Panem is a dictatorship, and we also know that the use of color, words, media, etc. were strategically used to get the people of Panem on board with Snow.  Towards the end of the trailer, the tone changes slightly, getting more intense. It almost feels like Snow is saying, "If you are not with us, or if you cause any problems, you will be sorry."  That's where this piece of media comes in.  Snow wants to portray Panem as a hopeful place, the "beating heart" of the world if you will.  As much as the trailer aims to persuade, the truth can be found in the minds and hearts of it's citizens.  The propaganda used doesn't change the fact that people were killed, there is a rebellion, and there is a certain way of life that needs to be upheld.  This piece of propaganda reminds us just how ridiculous the propaganda from "Mockingjay" is and I believe it is a good representation of the type of subliminal messaging that is happening in the movie trailer.

-Isabelle

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In reading the article on Martin Luther a sentence towards the end of the article struck me: "Luther's enemies likened the spread of his ideas to a sickness." This reminded me greatly of the "domino theory" that was prevalent in the West during the 1950s and 1960s: if they let one country fall to communism, then it was only a matter of time before they all fell. Despite the best efforts of Luther's enemies to stop the spread of his ideas, it was a domino effect. Perhaps the reason that communism did not spread as easily as dominoes, was that communism didn't capture the attention of the "networked public."
-Christine

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This poster was part of campaign to promote Hunger Games, Mocking Jay: Part 1 in a unique way. Instead of releasing typical trailers and movie posters to advertise the movie, the film marketers decided to release propaganda for the movie's dictatorship.  The posters and clips released weren't advertising the movie, but spoke to the characters in the movie's context as if bringing the entire audience into the movie.  The propaganda serves as a reminder of the story plot (where the previous film left off) and asks the viewers to engage.  The below poster is the dictatorship's propaganda to District 12 to show support, trying to prevent a rebellion of the districts against the dictatorship.
-Tori

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Curate and Connect. Select one of the following to read, and after reading, find relevant online content and upload it to this Padlet wall. Offer a brief written description of the resource and write a bit to explain the connection between the digital content and the reading.

READ: Einstein, Brandon. 2015. “Reading Between the Lines: The Rise of Native Advertising and the FTC’s Inability to Regulate It.” Brooklyn Journal of Corporate Finance & Commercial Law, 10(7), 225 – 248.

READ: “How Luther Went Viral.” The Economist. December 17, 2011.

READ: Robinson, Piers. 2016, August 2. “Russian News May be Biased, But So is Much Western News.” The Guardian.

READ: Andrew, Liam. 2014, October 29. “Controlled Chaos: As Journalism and Documentary Film Converge in Digital, What Lessons Can They Share?”Neiman Lab at Harvard.

Kain, Eric. 2014, June 25. “The Hunger Games Releases Propaganda Trailer, Posters for Mockinjay.” Forbes.

READ: Wikibooks. 2009. Communication Theory: Propaganda and the Public.