An advertorial is an advertisement written in the form of an objective opinion editorial, and presented in a printed publication — usually designed to look like a legitimate and independent news story. The term "advertorial" is a portmanteau of "advertisement" and "editorial." An example of a 1960s era print advertorial for toupees can be found at Modern Mechanix. Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... Objectivity is frequently held to be essential to journalistic professionalism (particularly in the United States); however, there is some disagreement about what the concept consists of. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into articles entitled Editorial and Op-ed. ... For other uses, see News (disambiguation). ... A portmanteau (IPA pronunciation: ) is a word or morpheme which fuses two or more words or parts of words to give a combined or loaded meaning. ...

Advertorials differ from publicity advertisements because the marketer must pay a fee to the media company for the ad placement, whereas publicity is placed without payment to the media company and with no control over the copy. Most publications will not accept advertisements that look exactly like stories from the newspaper or magazine they are appearing in. The differences may be subtle, and disclaimers—such as the word "advertisement"—may or may not appear. Sometimes euphemisms describing the advertorial as a "special promotional feature" or the like is used. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A euphemism is a word or phrase used in place of a term that originally could not be spoken aloud (see taboo) or, by extension, terms which they consider to be disagreeable or offensive. ...

Advertorials commonly advertise new products or techniques—such as a new design for golf equipment or a new form of laser surgery. The tone is usually closer to that of a press release than of an objective news story: advertisers will not spend money to describe the flaws of their products. Lasers were used in the 2005 Classical Spectacular concert Soon after the invention of the laser in 1960, it was described as a solution in search of a problem. However, since that time, the laser has found a place as a useful tool in many scientific, military, medical and industrial... A news release or press release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. ...

Advertorials can also be printed and presented as an entire newspaper section, inserted the same way within a newspaper as store fliers, comics sections, and other non-editorial content. These sections are most often seen within newspapers such as USA Today, and are usually printed on a smaller type of broadsheet and different newsprint than the actual paper. USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. ... Newspaper sizes in August 2005. ... Newsprint is low-cost, low-quality, non-archival paper. ...

Many newspapers and magazines will assign staff writers or freelancers to write advertorials, usually without a byline credit. A major difference between regular editorial and advertorial is that clients usually have content approval of advertorials, a luxury usually not provided with regular editorial. The byline on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name, and often the position, of the writer of the article. ...

A related practice is the creation of material that looks like traditional media (for instance, a newspaper or magazine) which is in fact created by a company to market its products. One familiar example are airline in-flight magazines which usually feature reports about travel destinations to which the airline flies. Some editors expect readers themselves to spot the commercial interests that lie behind a supposedly disinterested contributor, whilst a few are seeking signed declarations from untrusted journalists offering apparently skewed reportage^[1]

Product placement is another form of non-obvious paid-for advertising. This strategy was first popularized during the energy crisis of the 1970s. Mobil Oil felt its efforts to gets its side of the story out through the American press was failing. Political and media advisor Fred Dutton developed a strategy to publish Mobil Oil's opinion as an advertisement on editorial pages across the country. The strategy proved successful in getting its message out to both the public as well as politicians and Mobil Oil quickly became identified with this unique advertising strategy. Wikibooks has more about this subject: Marketing Product placement advertisements are promotional ads placed by marketers using real commercial products and services in media, where the presence of a particular brand is the result of an economic exchange. ... Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), headquartered in Irving, Texas, is an oil producer and distributor formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. ... Fred Dutton (full name Frederick Gary Dutton; June 16, 1923 - June 27, 2005) was a Democratic Party power broker. ...

Today, companies like PayPerPost, ReviewMe and Trigami are offering opportunities for marketers to use advertorial blog posts to market their new products. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/10/news_pf/Worldandnation/Corporate_spin_can_co.shtml