Of all the more or less sleazy and sneaky ways various blog-like sites have of inserting article-formatted advertising into the front page, I must say that Boing Boing’s is the most honest and up-front I’ve seen. I still don’t like it at all, but at least it’s not actively tricking me into giving a click. So kudos for that, and thanks.
For my two cents on what crosses the line, if you removed the word “Advertisement” from the heading, that would be egregious, but as it is, it’s clear that a particular article lede (or whatever you call the front page excerpt) is in fact an ad, and that’s all that I really ask.
I was kind of “tricked” into clicking it myself, from the Twitter feed, because I failed to notice the “#advertisement” tag, and the headline, “Revolutionary classics in domestic tech”, could easily have been something interestingly countercultural, like something about reviving radical politics of bygone eras in a modern high-tech manner. It was a letdown when it turned out to be corporate shilling instead.
Well, if there’s any chance of people clicking on it accidentally, I guess the “advertisement” call-out should be more prominent because if you wind up visiting enough crap commercial destinations, you will soon quit the site completely. The label was strong enough for me to avoid it, anyway. I doubt that many Boing Boing readers really want to buy anything from the Best Buy online store. Though there is a curious consonance of Bs in those two names…
Also, the company doing the advertising should be vetted. Are BoingBoing staff so callous that they are willing to take money from American Apparel, when there are astounding accounts of rape and sexual abuse involving the CEO/founder Dov Charney (whom I’ve met in person, and I can affirm that he is a sex hound with disturbing views on feminism)?? Who the fuck cares cuz money’s where it’s at, am I right guys? High five!
This site won’t be here if they can’t make some money. McDonalds, Best Buy, American Apparel, etc - I have my personal opinion of each of those companies, but if I were trying to keep a website going I’d love to have them as sponsors. You can always block the ad’s and support BB by shopping from their store.
Yep, policy for ad posts is it has to have “advertisement” or “sponsored” and a gray box if it’s ad copy; and a prominent text disclosure of anything sponsored even if it’s written by us without outside input. The full ad policy is in the dropdown nav at the top. I think it’s a fairly obvious set of indicators–and easy to add the relevant class to ad blockers if you want.
