In its endless efforts at misdirection, Facebook has turned its “Sponsored Stories” in your news feed (Sneak ADtack! Disclosure Index: 7 out of 10) into “Featured Stories” (Sneak ADtack! Disclosure Index: 1 out of 10).

From Advertising Age:

Facebook Looks to Rebrand News Feed Ads

Facebook began placing ads in users’ news feeds yesterday, a move that reverberated around the web when the company announced it last month as users fretted about how their experience on the social network would be sullied. Though not back-pedaling on the plan, Facebook is rebranding the units and has announced that news-feed advertising will be labeled “featured” instead of “sponsored.”

Sponsored stories were introduced a year ago and “are thought to be Facebook’s most effective advertising product because they’re built around friends’ endorsements,” according to Ad Age. And their introduction is accompanied by Facebook’s usual doublespeak:

“We are using the term ‘featured’ because we want to make it clear to people that they’re seeing content from a page or person they have chosen to connect to,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in an email.

File under: Two-Facedbook.

John R. Carroll is media analyst for NPR's Here & Now and senior news analyst for WBUR in Boston. He also writes at Campaign Outsider and It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
John R. Carroll has 305 post(s) on Sneak Adtack