Once around the park, James, and don’t spare the horses.

The ‘Dawn’ of a New Documentary

Procter & Gamble has launched a seven-part web series called The Big Picture that “showcases how the consumer products giant’s Dawn [dishwashing detergent] is used by wildlife rescuers to nurture animals back to health after oil spills and other hazards,” according to P&G’s hometown Cincinnati Enquirer.

From the press relea- . . . er, news report:

 

Viewers can watch the first webisode of the series on www.DawnSavesWildlife.com. More webisodes to be released online through September.

Episodes will show stories of animal patients rescued by Dawn’s wildlife partners, including a newborn seal pup abandoned by his family after unwanted human interaction, and an ailing pelican contaminated by boating oil.

Following each webisode, viewers can send e-thank you cards to the rescue volunteers who take on this wildlife mission everyday.

 

Okaaaay . . .

See for yourself:

 

 

As product promotions go, just ducky, eh?

 

So, Wait – Native Advertising Is Now NOT the Future?

The hardtracking staff is having a hard time keeping track on the natve advertising front these days. Last month a BuzzFeed sneakster said, “Native advertising is going to be the only advertising. The question is only what people are going to put in those units.”

Now a new study from the Online Publisher’s Association says something different. Via 10,000 Words:

 

Based on their survey of publishers, the study reveals that native solutions aren’t for every publication, or for every campaign. “There’s a place for it, but I don’t think we’re moving away from banner advertising…publishers know their audiences better than anyone and they know what’s going to drive engagement,” [OPA president Pam] Horan says.

 

Yes, well, judging from this helpful chart, that would be – umm – native advertising.

 

 

So conceivably only 90% of those publishers will be stealth marketing by year’s end? What a dim future for native advertising, eh?

 

So, Wait – Native Advertising Is Now Garbage?

From our Late to the (Pity) Party desk

The hardtracking staff has been remiss in failing to share this post from FishbowlNY last month.

 

No one likes sponsored advertising, but it is apparently here to stay. So it’s nice to see Gawker — which posts plenty of advertorial content —acknowledge how awful it is. Here is Tom Scocca — managing editor of the site — on its own sponsored content:

“The ad that doesn’t feel like an ad—this is the grail right now, for everyone, Gawker Media very much included. So we get the occasional humiliating advertorial post, with straight-up garbage dressed to resemble actual content, through which the advertiser (or the publication) tells the reader, ‘We think you are stupid, and we have bad taste.’”

 

Wow – that’s refreshing. Then again, Gawker may have just joined the 10% of publications that won’t be offering native advertising in the coming year.

 

 

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.
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