Advertising Theory by Rodgers Shelly; Thorson Esther;

Author:Rodgers, Shelly; Thorson, Esther;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Public policy has been a primary motivator for research on native advertising. In the following sections, we summarize some of these concerns.

Native Advertising and Public Policy

Based on the research, it is unclear what impact article-style and social media native advertising are having on important marketing variables. It is clear that consumers can be confused, or deceived, by native advertising. Nevertheless, consumers who encounter relevant native ads that are not annoying, irritating, or disruptive and that provide useful information have been shown to have positive reactions to them (Sahni & Nair, 2017). Clear labeling on ads that have value in the right context should not have negative impact on consumers’ evaluations or behavioral intentions. While this view is clearly not universally accepted by all marketers, Harms, Bijmolt, and Hoekstra (2017) found that some practitioners see the wisdom of transparency and providing consumers with good value in native advertising (e.g., “If the audience likes the content and it is designed properly, then it does not matter where it came from; however transparency of the sender is important”; p. 5).

Failure to be transparent as to the source of a native advertisement creates a variety of problems (see Bakshi, 2015). Once consumers realize they have been deceived there are negative consequences for all; the media source, the brand, and the sponsoring company (e.g., Wojdynski, 2106). Transparency about the source of the ad and its commercial nature can avoid the negative impact of deception and related attitudinal shifts.

And, of course, deception gets the attention of the FTC and of legislative bodies. The FTC has a long history of both regulating deceptive advertising (FTC, 1983, 2015a) and providing guidance (FTC, 2009, 2015b) and issuing clarifications (FTC, 2000, 2013a) as needed. Native advertising is a current enforcement priority for the FTC (2017a) and this is reflected in the increased interest the agency has shown in the new ad form (FTC, 2015b, 2017c, 2017d). As mentioned, the FTC (2013b) held a workshop to learn more about native advertising, its many forms, and consumer risk from the format. Following this workshop, the FTC released its Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptively Formatted Advertisements as well as a companion guide for business (FTC, 2015a, 2015b). The statement and guide specifically address the need for disclosure whenever a consumer may not recognize the true source of a communication. The FTC has taken action against deception in keyword search advertising (FTC, 2002), celebrity influencers in social media native ads (2017b), and article-style native ads (see the Lord & Taylor settlement; FTC, 2016).

Marketers who create native ads that are appropriate for their target markets and that provide value should not fear clear labeling (e.g., Krouwer & Poels, 2017). Marketers can avoid negative consumer reactions and negative policy actions with transparency in their online native ads.

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