Do You See Better, Worse Or The Same With This Regulation Or With That One?

On December 4 before a packed house, the FTC held its much-anticipated workshop on native advertising, Blurred Lines: Advertising or Content?, which examined the practice of blending of advertisements with news, entertainment, and other editorial content in digital media. And like Robin Thicke's summer hit itself, the FTC's workshop raised a lot of questions (and eyebrows) about the future of the medium. In case you missed it, here are some of the highlights.

Chairwoman Ramirez opened by noting that native advertising, while not new, is growing at a rapid rate. In 2013 alone, 73% of websites currently offer native advertising and an additional 13% are considering it for 2014. The FTC's resident blogger Lesley Fair gave a historical perspective on FTC enforcement actions against advertorials, infomercials, and paid endorsements; explaining that while times change, that the touchtone for any analysis is (and always has been) whether the practice violates Section 5.

The day's first panel (moderated by Laura Sullivan of the FTC's Division of Ad Practices) focused on sponsored content in digital publications - the forms it takes and how it operates. Everyone on the panel seemed to agree that transparency and disclosure of sponsorship is important and necessary - whether simply labeled "advertisement" or "sponsored by" a given brand - but how "transparency" can truly be accomplished is a more nuanced (and disputed) issue.

In a theme that was noted repeatedly throughout the workshop, there was considerable discussion as to whether and in what circumstances disclosures were required - either under Section 5, or simply as a matter of journalistic ethics, or in order to maintain brand trust and integrity.

When asked whether it would be prudent to create a framework to differentiate native advertising from other types, Todd Haskell from Hearst Magazine pointed out that there's a benefit to having some consistent principles in native advertising. Specific disclosures, experiences, and practices, however, will look different for each advertiser, he said. Haskell noted the critical piece that publishers have the flexibility to do what is right for their brands. Tessa Gould with the Huffington Post's native advertising studio weighted in that consistency in a definition would encourage companies to adopt best practices.

Steve Rubel, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Strategist at Edelman, said that companies are eager to use the best possible...