An Ad by Any Other Name is Still an Ad

This week the Established in 1914 under President Woodrow Wilson, the FTC is the United States government’s primary regulatory authority in the area of consumer protection and anti-competitive business practices in the marketplace. Its Bureau of Consumer Protection assumes the lead in the Commission’s efforts to eliminate deceptive advertising and fraudulent business practices at work in the economy. will sit down with advertisers, publishers, and consumer advocates to discuss the increasingly blurred line between objective content and paid advertisements in news media. The goal of the Dec. 4 workshop is to explore effective ways ads should be differentiated from news content. We at TINA.org think the issue is simple. A sponsored ad is deceptive if it doesn’t fully reveal to readers that it is paid content. The FTC has already stated: “If it is compensated, it is sponsored and must be disclosed.” While this all continues to be worked out in further detail, (and we will be at the workshop so check back for further details) we wondered if maybe a thesaurus update was necessary. After all, these words are all synonyms for the same thing— advertisements.

1. “Brand Voice” – Forbes

2. “Sponsored Video” – The Onion

3. “Presents” – BMW

4. “Presented By” – Upworthy

5. “Presented By” – Buzzfeed

6. “Posted By” – Buzzfeed

7. “Suggested” – Facebook

8. “Promoted” – Twitter

9. “Sponsored” – Instagram

10. “To the Couch! Sponsored by” – CNN

11. No Marking – Marie Clarie