John Dvorak slams Mashable for deceptively posting an article written by Panasonic and making it look exactly like journalistic content. Mashable calls this deception “BrandSpeak” which sounds quite a lot like DoubleSpeak to me and pretends it ‘gives voice to Mashable advertiser’s best content.’
Sounds like Mashable is done with that whole journalism thing anyway. No sense in pissing off advertisers with investigative reporting when they pay you to run faux journalism instead.
Nowhere did it actually say this was an advertisement. Under the leading photo it does disclose “Sponsored by Panasonic,” but this is not going far enough when a discreditable advertisement poses as editorial. Sponsorship, you call it? Sponsorship to me means you bought the uniforms for a Little League team.
Whatever the excuse, this is not kosher. It should be condemned.
Not to mention, the piece is terrible. Did the editors even edit it?
Join Dvorak and Adam Curry on their twice weekly No Agenda podcast where they discuss this appalling new practice of pretending advertising is content, and many other topics too.
This sleazy practice is called “native advertising.” Dvorak rightly calls it corruption.
This tail wagging the dog is a huge problem with the Internet and the cheapening value of information. Advertising apparently cannot pay the bills online. Enter Mr. Corruption. And now you know why the No Agenda Show is so good. We do not deal with advertisers. And you can be sure many have approached us with claims that we could make 10 times more money.
We’d rather make the best podcast in the universe with your help. Look into this “native advertising” malarkey and you’ll be shocked. It’s everywhere and clouding the truth.