When Should Businesses Disclose that Content is Native Advertising?
II. EXAMPLES OF WHEN BUSINESSES SHOULD DISCLOSE THAT CONTENT IS NATIVE ADVERTISING
In digital media, native ads often resemble the design, style, and functionality of the media in which they are disseminated. Ads may appear on a page next to non-advertising content. Examples include news or content aggregator sites, social media platforms, or messaging apps. (The Enforcement Policy Statement refers to a page like that as a “publisher site.”) In other instances, ads are embedded in entertainment programming, such as professionally produced and user-generated videos on social media. Still other examples include native advertising in email, infographics, images, animations, and video games.
When a native ad appears on the main page of a publisher site or is republished in other media, it commonly consists of a headline, often combined with a thumbnail image and a short description, which, if clicked or tapped, leads to additional advertising content. Under FTC law, advertisers cannot use “deceptive door openers” to induce consumers to view advertising content. Thus, advertisers are responsible for ensuring that native ads are identifiable as advertising before consumers arrive at the main advertising page. In addition, no matter how consumers arrive at advertising content, it must not mislead them about its commercial nature.
In assessing whether a native ad presented on the main page of a publisher site is recognizable as advertising to consumers, advertisers should consider the ad as a whole, and not just focus on individual phrases, statements, or visual elements. Factors to weigh include an ad’s overall appearance; the similarity of its written, spoken, or visual style or subject matter to non-advertising content on the publisher site on which it appears; and the degree to which it is distinguishable from other content on the publisher site. The same assessment applies to any click- or tap-into page – the page on which the complete ad appears.
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For more information, see here: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/native-advertising-guide-businesses
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