[1] In printed publications, the advertisement is usually written to resemble an objective article and designed to ostensibly look like a legitimate and independent news story.
[citation needed] A related practice is the creation of material that looks like traditional media (for instance, a newspaper or magazine) but is actually created by a company to market its products.
Sheldon Schorr, the president of Parkway, was a leader in the crafting of advertorials and placed hundreds a year in scores of periodicals, especially magazines, utilizing quotes, brand references and trade enhancement, "meant to complement a company or persons' brand passively and more affordably than any other form of editorial content with much greater success than a press release".
[citation needed] In Australia, daytime programs featuring light talk and advertorials have been in television schedules since the late 1960s.
In November 2011, Nine Network cancelled Kerri Anne which was replaced by a new program titled 'Mornings' which premiered in 2012 presented by Sonia Kruger and David Campbell.
[citation needed] In India, the nexus between cable television companies, popular news papers and political parties came to the fore front in a 2011 documentary made by Prasar Bharati which revealed that the ownership of seven of the ten largest media companies in India was connected to some political party or the other.
In 2018, a sting operation nicknamed "Cobrabost 136" by Cobrapost, an Indian investigative journalism agency showed videos of meetings held with the 15 largest media companies, who agreed to publish / telecast communally and politically motivated and misleading information as a campaign in return for payments, routed through advertising and PR companies.
Beginning with Daytime on Media General station WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida in the early 2000s, a new format featuring the structure of a traditional locally produced daytime show with the usual format of light talk, health features, beauty tips and recipe segments which was popular up to the early 1990s (when expansion of newscasts became a much less expensive, more dependable form of revenue) came into use.
[citation needed] This type of program usually features light talk designed to draw in mainly a female audience, and then presentation of products, services, and packages by local businesses; for example a basement waterproofing system might be discussed by the representative of a company in that business with the hosts, along with perhaps a special offer for viewers.
[citation needed] In U.S. newspapers, for example, ExxonMobil purchased an advertorial positioned next to The New York Times op-ed page every Thursday between 1972 and 2001.
The products featured can range from mobile phone/cable/satellite providers, insurance, financing, auto servicing, travel agencies, and upcoming concerts or music releases.
[citation needed] The "cash for comment affair" was an Australian scandal that broke in 1999, concerning paid advertising in radio that was presented to the audience in such a way as to sound like editorial commentary.
In one case, the Scottish newspaper The Herald published a feature titled "Professional Brief" that had been submitted by Glasgow-based French Duncan Chartered Accountants.
[16] For magazines in the United States mailed at the publication rate, the Postal Service has regulations as to how to mark editorial and advertising.