Sunday, March 29, 2009

Online advertising has created new ethical questions to consider. One consideration that is not only a problem on the web are advertorials. These are advertisements that are made to look like editorials. This is appealing to advertisers because the reader is more likely to believe the content; however, the dishonesty raises ethical questions and can cause people to distrust the brand that made the advertorial. The generally accepted rule at this point is that any advertisement that can be confused as regular content should be marked as advertising. This is true for print and online media outlets. Another issue is kick through ads. These ads sends the reader to a different website if their mouse scrolls over it, without them clicking on it. Also, these links are often put in words or phrases within editorial content. Some classify this as spyware since it sends users to a website without their consent. The makers of this technology, however, contend that since the words that are links are underlined in green, and the ensuing content is labeled as advertising, there is no ethical violation.

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