A little over a year after the New York Times was called out for a questionable Coca-Cola advertisement that wasn’t disclosed as such, the Times published a more transparent advertisement for new FX show The Americans.
The Jan. 30 roll-over ad included three likely fake stories in Russian. The design of the ad looks like a newspaper page and included at the top of the page is the date and the disclosure in black lettering “Advertisement.” See above a screenshot of the ad. Below, check out a side-by-side comparison of the rollover ad with the New York Times’ homepage without the ad showing.
Above left, see the rollover ad with the ad content appearing similar to news content. On the right, see the New York Times’ homepage without the rollover ad. (Credit: NYT , screenshot)
In addition to the fake news page, the ad includes another rotating image picturing the name of the show, the show’s actors Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys and more.
See above another still image from the rollover ad. (Credit: NYT, screenshot)
In late 2011, iMediaEthics wrote when the New York Times ran a similar advertisement where a Coca Cola ad in the style of the Times’ homepage — complete with “news stories” — rolled over the Times’ homepage. In that case, the rollover ads didn’t include any disclosure that they were ads.