Native advertising
Also known as: Sponsored content, Advertorial
Ads disguised as ordinary content so they slip past your skepticism.
What it means
Native advertising is paid promotional material designed to match the form, style, and function of the editorial or organic content surrounding it, so that it reads as an article, post, or video rather than an obvious advertisement. Its persuasive power rests on lowering recognition: when readers do not register that a message is an ad, their persuasion knowledge — the learned defenses that prompt skepticism toward marketing — stays dormant, and the content is processed with the credibility granted to news or a friend's recommendation. The format is effective precisely because of this camouflage, which is also the source of its ethical and regulatory controversy, since undisclosed or poorly labeled sponsorship can mislead. Research finds that many people fail to identify native ads as advertising even when a disclosure is present, because the disclosure is easy to overlook or its meaning is unclear. It matters because it sits at the contested boundary between persuasion and deception in digital media.
Examples
A 'sponsored' listicle on a news site that looks identical to the outlet's normal articles but was paid for by a brand to promote its product.
A cooking video from a creator you follow is shot exactly like her normal recipes, but the brand of pan in shot paid for it; the small 'paid partnership' tag rarely registers.
A 'recommended for you' post carries the same layout, typeface and comment count as the posts around it, so readers are halfway through before noticing someone bought the slot.