"Native Advertising"

[Brian Hitchcock]

"Native" is of course the opposite of what such advertising is.  

I submit that we already have at least two better terms to describe something that looks like what it isn't, or that seems not to be there at all.
     - Camouflage(d)
     - Stealth(y)
Both, aptly, evoke images of military operations wherein deceiving the enemy into not perceiving your presence is a common tactic.

Other terms that would more accurately describe this deceptive advertising mode:
     - disguised
     - embedded
     - hidden
     - impostor / imposture
     - insidious                         (already mentioned by Mr. Lighter)
     - Trojan Horse

And, from the movie industry itself, an accurate term for a well-established, subtle form of embedded advertising:
     - Product Placement

But advertisers are not generally known for calling something what it is.
On the contrary, the very "nature" of their craft consists of portraying things as what they aren't.
Even the word "native" used to describe this phenomenon is a deception. 
Perhaps it is an intentional use of an antonym; a bit of a joke (on us) by advertisers.
Or perhaps they are so accustomed to turning reality topsy-turvy that they don't even catch the irony in the term.
In either case, it seems rather Orwellian to me. 

Brian Hitchcock
Torrance, CA

Date:    Tue, 16 Sep 2014 08:23:04 -0400
From:    Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: "native advertising"

A useful term, but invented to designate a potentially insidious phenomenon.

Applied to ads in theaters that look like they could be part of a movie, fine.  Or animated ads during cartoon shows. The advertising function is undisguised, and it's chiefly a matter of style.

But applied to ads that are calculated to resemble news stories - and positioned where confusion is desirable inevitable - and subsumed under a more or less harmless general concept - that's another kettle of fish..

(And even if the usage was adapted from architecture, the architectural choice of "native" still seems rather arbitrary. But that's obviously of secondary interest. At least to me.)



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