Forbes The Capitalist Tool's Blurred Lines Between Content & Advertising
We've been writing about Forbes' Emily Willingham: Emily Willingham and the CDC Criminal, Forbes’ Willingham Wrong on Courts, Vaccine Injuries and Brain Damage , Emily Willingham on "Mispresenting the Facts" in Forbes , The Continued Weirdness of Emily Willingham
Yesterday I received a LinkdIn email about a job with Forbes as Managing Editor for Forbes BrandVoice. What are we reading today in any publication? News? Press Releases? An interesting question. We've been approached to run sponsored content - we say not. But we are not capitalist tools.
BrandVoice, in a nutshell, is publicity/marketing content wrapped in the layout of new content. Forbes published this article last February, Inside Forbes: Before It Was Called Native Advertising, a Team in a 'Box' Had an Idea explaining the concept of allowing marketers to use the same online platform as journalists, contributors. I've seen something similar on my Yahoo home page where news is interspersed with adnews - headlines that look newsy but then have a tiny "advertisement" label.
From the ad:
Forbes BrandVoice is an integrated and by-invitation content-sharing platform that enables marketers to join the conversation with their own narrative and expertise. (emphasis mine) BrandVoice is an innovative approach to integrating marketer’ content with the Forbes’ editorial and users’ content – allowing marketers to demonstrate their thought leadership in the Forbes platform using the same tools as content creators.
http://www.emediavitals.com/content/forbes-gives-advertisers-editorial-voice
Posted by: Garbo | September 11, 2013 at 01:32 PM
Through the magic of Wikipedia:
"Forbes currently allows advertisers to publish blog posts on its website alongside regular editorial content through a program called AdVoice, which accounts for more than 10 percent its digital revenue.[18]"
One must wonder how many other media conglomerates -- especially beleaguered print media trying to make ends meet -- have similar policies in place. Tribune?
Oh, and another thing...
John Forbes Kerry is the child of Richard Kerry (1915–2000), a Foreign Service Officer and an attorney for the Bureau of United Nations Affairs, and Rosemary Isabel (Forbes) Kerry (1913–2002), a World War II nurse and member of the wealthy Forbes family.
Posted by: Garbo | September 11, 2013 at 01:29 PM
BJ
A nice (in the old sense of the word) distinction, and an important one.
Posted by: John Stone | September 10, 2013 at 05:48 PM
"Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven't had capitalism." - Ron Paul
The above is an example of corporatism, not capitalism. If we had truly free market capitalism in this country, vaccine makers would not be shielded from liability and the autism rate would not be 1 in 50.
Just saying.
Posted by: BJ | September 10, 2013 at 05:44 PM
“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know what no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
Orwell, 1984
Posted by: beth johnson | September 10, 2013 at 01:15 PM
Wow, they are just coming right out and admitting their corporate agenda. It's like they are not even embarrassed.
Posted by: beth johnson | September 10, 2013 at 01:09 PM
Forbes--a trade association magazine?!
Posted by: Jim Thompson | September 10, 2013 at 11:03 AM
Ha! Forbes calls this innovative!? Innovative? No. Sleazy? Yes. There are unfortunately a lot of these sleazy pharma marketing groups operating now.
Posted by: jen | September 10, 2013 at 10:35 AM