ExxonKnews
November 19, 2025
“There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements,” the “father of advertising” David Ogilvy wrote in 1963. His global ad agency went on to create campaigns for oil giant BP, including helping it coin the slogan “Beyond Petroleum” as part of a rebranding effort.
“If you make [advertisements] look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers,” Ogilvy claimed. “You might think that the public would resent this trick, but there is no evidence to suggest that they do.”
A new book out this week, Content Confusion: News Media, Native Advertising, and Policy in an Era of Disinformation, finds that Ogilvy got it wrong. Author Michelle Amazeen compiles her and others’ research on “native advertising,” a practice where corporations work with in-house content studios at news outlets to create ads that are designed to look and feel just like the publication’s journalistic articles. The book delivers a stark warning to outlets that native ads are eroding the public’s trust in media and poisoning the role of journalism in democracy.
