Are the 'glory days' of advertising back? (Mad Men, Lionsgate)
It's a "legitimate con", according to one former executive at ESI Media, the Russian-owned company that controls London’s Evening Standard and the online Independent. A writer working for Spark, the Telegraph’s branded content division, calls it “creative deception”. For the American communications academic, Mara Einstein, it’s simply “black ops advertising”. But whatever name you give to the growing practice of blurring the separation between impartial editorial and paid-for advertising, readers of UK newspapers and their linked online sites are increasingly unable to notice when the news ends and the hidden sales pitch begins.
