Reply To: Industry Sponsored Content – Standards/Best Practices for Disclosure

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Hi Radha. Really important questions. Keeping your audience in mind, I would not run sponsored content without disclosing in any circumstance I can think of but if you have one in mind, I’m happy to give feedback. Associations are often criticized for representing big business and that jeopardizes not only trust from your audiences, but also potentially your 501c3 status. In my magazine days, we labeled all sponsored content as advertorial and gave it a different look (a stripe down the side of the page, a frame around the content). You need to have a policy in place so a funder can read it before creating copy for your channels. You can also use it to push back on requests and hold to your ethical standards. I’m sure you can find stats (ChatGPT?)about the erosion of trust based on consumers believing your brand is trying to “get one over on them.” Consumers are more savvy than some marketers give them credit for. Good luck.