Native and embedded advertising formats: Tensions between a lucrative marketing strategy and consumer fairness

摘要

Taken together, this special issue illustrates the multitude of perspectives when it comes to native advertising, some of them conflicting, some of them congruent. Most research in the field of advertising and content marketing, however, has primarily looked at the consumer's perspective, for instance, by examining the effects of native advertising on advertising outcomes (e. g., Djafarova and Rush-worth, 2017; Evans et al., 2017). However, such a view remains inconclusive if it is not embedded in a broader understanding of why and how native advertising works. As our special issue demonstrates, marketing success and consumer fairness are not necessarily mutually exclusive when it comes to native advertising. Native advertising, no doubt, is a successful marketing strategy (e. g., Mayrhofer et al., 2020). However, there are clear red lines, ethical and legal, and empirical research is called to ask and address questions around those red lines. This will inform the debate by not only helping marketers to understand how they can craft successful native advertising messages but also by helping them to better understand the potentially problematic consequences of their actions. Likewise, research should be designed to yield results which can then be used to (better) inform consumers about the scope and power of native advertising in order to empower the members of the audience to maintain, and to regain, their independence. Marketing effectiveness and consumer fairness should therefore be considered comprehensively and equally in future research. That is, studies from the marketers' perspective are called on to take the notion of consumer fairness into account. By the same token, scholars focusing on consumer rights should not completely deny the legitimate aim of marketers to influence consumers. Still, the tension between marketing success and consumer fairness is not easy to resolve. Yet, we hope that this special issue can be a small piece in this complex puzzle.