Native Advertising: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

let's talk about corporate influence in the media and before I do I am very aware that we're extremely lucky here on HBO we don't have advertisers so if I want to say that for instance Cadbury cream eggs are filled with dolphin sperm or or that old navy clothing makes you look like a tacky murderer or or that or that Snickers only satisfies you for about eight minutes then makes you hate yourself for the rest of the day I can I can do all of those things and why well because of HBO's business model which no one has been able to adequately explain to me yet but most other outlets are locked in a constant battle for editorial independence with it which is especially problematic when it comes to the news America has a proud tradition of a free and independent press but it has always been a fight back in the 50s newscasters like NBC's John Cameron Swayze were introduced like this sit back light up a camel and be an eyewitness to the happenings that made history in the last 24 hours the camel news Caravan presents today's news today produced four Camel cigarettes by NBC top story this evening Americans life expectancy is still 45 that's Camel smooth now exceptions like that aside it's generally agreed upon in journalism that there should be a wall separating the editorial and the business side of news it's sometimes referred to as the separation of church and state although I like to think of news and advertising is the separation of guacamole and Twizzlers separately they're good but if you mix them together somehow you make both of them really gross but recently the integrity of news has become harder to protect particularly in print print is still where most original journalism is done but since papers moved online they have struggled financially mainly because news is like porn people don't want to pay for it on the Internet even though somewhere in a dimly lit room Paul Krugman worked very hard to make it online online ah online he worked hard he put his heart and soul into that online print publications have struggled to attract advertisers partly because traditional banner ads are so ineffective that one study found we only intentionally click on them less than two-tenths of one percent of the time which actually sounds about right because did you know that if you ever actually click on a banner ad you literally get taken to a page that reads hey is everything ok I'm presuming you passed out and hit your head on the keyboard I'm calling an ambulance right now the publishing industry though has responded to this crisis by finding a new way to appeal to advertisers native advertising is basically saying to corporations that want to advertise we will camouflage your ads to make them look like news stories that's essentially it that's essentially it are you saying that to sum up your point on native advertising or are you describing independent journalism that's essentially it it's over we're done here even if you've not heard the term native advertising before you have probably been subjected to it by now it's when a piece of ostensibly normal content is stamped with tiny disclaimers like this and this and then contains messages that are often clear endorsements and if you'll excuse me I'll just take a break from making this point by enjoying the refreshing taste of Mountain Dew Code Red and then it's at this point that you usually realize oh this isn't the thing that I was looking for you're just advertising the most disgusting drink ever manufactured although although I will say it does undeniably taste of red native advertising though has been so lucrative for new media organizations they basically built their entire business model around it 100% of our revenue comes from from branded content so so we have a lot of partners who are who are marketers and major brands who work with 76 to the top 100 brands now that's the CEO of BuzzFeed Jonah Peretti and his face is like BuzzFeed itself so successful appealing and yet somehow you want to punch it BuzzFeed has created high speed it for high speed has created masterpieces of native advertising such as 10 life-changing ways to make your day more efficient sponsored by GE and nine ways cleaning has become smarter sponsored by Swiffer and 11 sea creatures who deserve to die sponsored by BP now that that that last one is a joke but it's not significantly different from the previous two full disclosure HBO did pay for lists to promote this show around the time that we began very cleverly realizing we better promote this show no one is going to give a about it but but the success of this practice has clearly impressed old media such as Time Inc whose CEO recently created a native advertising team and he also doesn't see why that might be an issue as long as it's clearly marked as long as the consumer knows the difference in watts editorial and what's native I don't see any problem with it at all yep but it is a problem though because the consumer cannot tell the difference a recent study showed that less than half of visitors to a new site could distinguish native advertising from actual news and of course they can't because it's supposed to blend in you're like a camouflage manufacturer saying only an idiot could not tell the difference between that man unfold it I mean look the camouflage clearly states not foliage on the collar it's clear and besides I'm sure the deal knows the difference between the two things deers are so smart you have to respect deer and if you are wondering how he reconciles this with the line between church and state well funny story Craig frankly I've changed Turks and state as you know we took that away and we said the editors are going to now be working for the business side of the equation but frankly I think they're happier they're more excited about it because no longer we asking ourselves the question are we violating church and state whatever that was whatever that was that's like a surgeon saying hey I found this squishy thing in there all bloody and gross so I removed it whatever that was that was the heart that was what made the whole thing work you needed that and it's not just Time Inc that's doing this the Atlantic published some native advertising for the Church of Scientology the ad is the kind you've probably seen it's called sponsored content it's formatted to look like an actual article on their website and the article lavishly praised Scientology's leader David Miscavige okay now for the Atlantic that is ethically compromising but for Scientology that is just plain stupid they clearly should have gone with a magazine with better access to their key demographic such as depressed aspiring actor monthly even even the New York Times is now embracing this I had a recent feature on their website about women in prison which looked like a serious piece of journalism but was actually a paid post promoting season two of orange is the new black and here's the thing as far as native advertising goes that's about as good as it gets the reporting is real and the sponsored branding was minimal but it is still an ad it's like hearing the one Katy Perry song that you like you think sure this is the best possible iteration of Katy Perry but it still feels wrong to be listening to this you're gonna hear me roar louder louder than a lion it's a good song it's a good stop there's a 12 year old girl inside me who is empowered by that song so the problem is the problem is the problem is sponsors aren't always going to be as benign as orange is the new black sometimes it's going to be a company like Chevron who recently sponsored a piece in The Times about how our energy needs are changing and spoiler alert the notion that they're changing because we've got the earth thanks to companies like Chevron is not the conclusion of the article you might think all of this might seriously damage trust in a news organization but at times advertising executive would like to vigorously refute that let me start by vigorously refuting the notion that native advertising has to erode consumer trust or compromise the wall that exists between editorial and advertising good native advertising is just not meant to be trickery it's meant to be publisher sharing it's it's storytelling tools with a marketer exactly exactly it's not trickery it's sharing storytelling tools and that's not it's repurposed bovine waste and look in use a use that is seemingly the model now ads are baked into content like chocolate chips into a cookie except it's actually more like raisins into a cookie because no one wants them there and and the point is think how much it would affect your trust in me as a source if you knew that that last anti raisin cookie joke was actually brought to you by Chips Ahoy but but before we demonize these organizations for selling out it is worth remembering this is all at least partially our fault a press cannot be free and independent if nobody is willing to pay for it and it seems nobody is going to in which case I'd like to make a suggestion if our news is going to be corrupted we should at least get something in return every time a corporation sneaks advertising into our news and ruins it our news should be allowed to sneak into their advertising when you get hot you get thirsty and when you get thirsty there is only one choice Diet Coke the recent Ebola outbreaks killed up 700 people in West after the World Health Organization says they don't yet have it under control in this situation threatens to become catastrophic you

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 12,198,017

Rating: 4.9152403 out of 5

Keywords: native advertising, buzzfeed, new york times, Time Inc. (Business Operation), Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (TV Program), HBO (TV Network), John Oliver (TV Writer), mountain dew

Id: E_F5GxCwizc

Length: 11min 23sec (683 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 03 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/superdude72]

Native advertising is all about borrowing credibility from the host publication or programming. Period. There is no way to do that without compromising the host. When the NY Times creates propaganda for Chevron under its own name, it damages the NY Times brand. What is the value of the NY Times aside from its reputation for being one of very few elite journalistic institutions strong enough to hold its own against the political and corporate powers that be? This is not good for the long-term health of the company.

[u/420kbps]

I like how John rags on HBO. It reminds me of how The Simpsons did it with Fox

[u/Ijoinedtotellonejoke]

UK Mirror: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x22rcya_last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver-native-advertising-hbo_fun

[u/shehasnoclue]

John Oliver singing Roar had me in stitches.

[u/BlueCuracao]

Reminds me of this

[u/[deleted]]

"It's not bullshit, it's repurposed bovine waste..." -John Oliver

[u/wrestlescoyotes]

Too lazy to research this, but I have a question. Did Oliver bring some writers from The Daily Show with him to his HBO show? Because his show sounds like what The Daily Show wants to say but can't.

The writing on both shows is top notch. I wonder how many people he stole when he left.

[u/TayMac92]

I'm glad he put his imaginary cigarette out in his imaginary ash tray. Wouldn't want to start an imaginary fire in the studio on accident.

[u/alonmln]

Excellent video. this guy has some balls.