zlacker

So paid actors in movies are ads? They are paid for by the production company.

Presumably we want to keep paid actors, but then the loop hole is that Procter & Gamble becomes a media production company.

That's actually close to how things used to be eg in the US.

>>eru+(OP)
The actors in a movie aren't the ones delivering the content to me.

>>eru+(OP)
Procter & Gamble is welcome to become a media production company, but they can't push their media by paying for distribution - any paid distribution is advertising. Instead, distributors have to want to distribute the content because they think their audience will be interested in consuming it - a high bar to hit if the main purpose of your media is to push a product.

Paid actors, and for example company representatives, do count as acting on behalf of the company and therefore don't count as paid advertising. But, whatever medium they are talking to has to be an unpaid medium. A company representative (or paid actor) talking about a product in an interview is okay if the interviewer / distributor is not being paid to host the interview. (or if the interviewer / distributor is the company itself - that's also allowed).

Does that give massive companies an advantage? I would argue not really, because it creates massive overheads for pushing advertisement content, and since you aren't allowed to pay for distribution, it means that people have to be interesting in consuming your content of their own volition instead of other content that isn't trying to push products.

>>Taek+53
> Procter & Gamble is welcome to become a media production company, but they can't push their media by paying for distribution - any paid distribution is advertising.

I'm a bit confused.

When Amazon pays the postal service to send me a book, is that paid distribution and thus advertising?

Another example: I used to subscribe to the print edition of the Economist. I as a consumer paid for that product. Does that mean there's no ads in the Economist? (A substantial fraction of the print edition is made up of ads in the common sense understanding of the term.)