Advertisers always manage to stay two steps ahead. As a child of the online era, I absorb most of my news online in quick B12-like shots; I am masterful at maneuvering through the Internet, deftly avoiding banner ad traps no matter how beguiling their nods and winks, and I never—I repeat never—pay to access anything online.
But every now I then I too am fooled. For instance, last night as I was reading The Huffington Post I clicked on what I thought was a feature article only to find that it was actually a link to a completely separate site—a site comprised solely of advertorials, those pesky ad-opinion hybrids parading as legitimate news.
I, who is so discerning and hawk-eyed when it comes to matters of the interweb, had been duped!
So I shook my fist in the air and damned those cunning, Starbucks-sipping ad execs who concocted such a well-engineered ruse, then I looked at a slideshow of The Washington Post's Peep diorama contest until all was marshmallowy and pastel once again.
