The Atlantic updates ad policy after Scientology flap

After running Church of Scientology advertorial, The Atlantic has updated its advertising policy. They nail the problem, too.

The Atlantic will refuse publication of such content that, in its own judgment, would undermine the intellectual integrity, authority, and character of our enterprise.

After all, it was the advertiser, not the presentation, that most readers objected to. An earlier leak suggested The Atlantic had been distracted by pundit complaints over the advertorial format, and would be prepared to run Scientology ads in future if "executed" better.

• This post is brought to you by Power Shitting with Paula Deen: The New Butter-based Diet Sensation

• [Rob Beschizza]

  By the way, many of BB’s ads are self-service: if you see a dodgy one, chances are we don’t even know it’s there. Email badad at boingboing.net and we’ll deal with it.

• [Christopher]

  I just want to say that I don’t know what advertising department approved “This post is brought to you by Power Shitting with Paula Deen: The New Butter-based Diet Sensation” but they deserve a major award.

• [eoknyzry]

  This post nailed it. It’s the advertiser not the act that bugged people. What are the rules around here? I see a number of self-serving posts like for people’s spouses. Some are advertising their side products?  Is that Advertorial? 

  • [Rob Beschizza]

    tl;dr: everything is marked as an ad if we were paid to put it on the site. The full policy: http://boingboing.net/policies#Ad

    • [David Pescovitz]

      Indeed. And yes, we feel fortunate that our friends and partners sometimes do such cool stuff that we want to post about it! If there’s a close personal relationship, we do our best to point that out in the post.

  • [C W]

    “I see a number of self-serving posts like for people’s spouses.”

    If it’s of interest to our demographic, we care less. Is this surprising to you? Scientology is hostile to every thought and freedom-loving person on this earth, so it’s natural that people interested in free thought and action would revolt against advertorials more than someone’s spouse doing a geeky thing here.

• [Brian McKeever]

  “After all, it was the advertiser, not the presentation, that most readers objected to.”
  Very true.  Probably the most amusing aspect of this whole controversy is how badly that ad backfired on Scientology.