apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

"This post is sponsored"? Lame, guys. Advertorial crap is unethical, boring, and ultimately compromises your credibility. Shame on you, you've lost a fan, AT.

AT, walking slowly but surely toward SUCKDOM. Gotta go, I suddenly have the urge to go buy some CRAP

The whole time I was reading I was thinking, wow this really seems like an ad for R&B. I love R&B, but come on.

Not good. Now I have to wonder each time if a "post is sponsored." Maybe I am too naive - maybe it's all like this.

Yet another person thats not feeling the ad. This was hardcore lame.

Ugh.

I love reading AT, but this "sponsored by" post was really really bad - most definitely disappointing. This was, in essence, a PR release for Room and Board written by Apartment Therapy blogger.

I love Room and Board, but it does now make me question whether AT praises products because they are deserving of praise, or because there is a "sponsor," undisclosed or otherwise, behind the post.

At the very least, AT should have disclosed right at the top of the post that the post was sponsored by Room and Board. I feel misled, because I did, initially, miss the "sponsored by" part of the post.

This makes me a little sad.

Oh wow, a middle drawer that houses a keyboard? how very novel, never seen that before. Or, if you don't really care you could buy a nearly exact desk from Target for $99 and save yourself over 700 dollars.
Count me amongst those that hate this sponsored post. Not only does it feel disingenuous, it's not even all that creative or new. I feel as though I've seen all of those pieces of furniture and hardware before.

"Opinions come in from the merchandising manager to the people working in the warehouse to the owner to the vendors!"

Wow! It's an infomercial trying to sell me a desk that was designed by committee.

Poor decision-making by everyone involved in this one.

I had been kind of hoping that the last one was a one-off, maybe to "reward" R&B for their Small Cool sponsorship.
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/room-board-2008/room-board-presents-anders-line-by-vermont-furniture-designs-047718

Pretty lame imho. I know you guys have families to feed, but do you not worry about killing the goose that laid the golden egg?

I actually was commenting about the popup ads that you couldn't even remove if you tried and that scrolled along with you....lol..I couldn't even read the "sponsored" part because the popup ads. Ugh. I also sense a "sponsored" vibe in the AT emails that seem to shill one product or another. Is there a privacy policy for this site? Just wondering.

AT! Do not do this! Even crappy women's magazines make merchants whose ads pretend to be magazine articles use a different font and put "paid advertisement" at the TOP of the ad, so you don't get tricked. Just saying "Room & Board presents" is not enough to tip us off it's an ad, since you often post about specific products or companies.

Hmmm - second "Sponsored by..." post in two days.

I guess Jill needs a new pair of shoes...

IKEA also makes a (knock-off, no doubt) reasonably priced desk with keyboard tray/three drawers that's around 250. I think the rest of the R&B stuff looks nice. If I had the cash, I'd get it.

And um, it wasn't that clear to me that it was a sponsored ad but it didn't bother me as much as the others. I know that you guys have to make money some how, and hey if you like it...it's probably not that bad. My recommendation is: just don't go overboard with the sponsored ads, and be more up-front about it.

Wow. Makes me sad that R&B would go this route and made that AT would play.

And another thing, if we're going to have infomercials, can we at least have well-written infomercials?

Or maybe we should take the ultra-flat "oh lord I'm so excited about the secret pragmatism (ack) of those with a bit more storage needs (ack ack) that I might have to jump off a bridge"-style as an encouraging sign that every bone in your body was silently rebelling against the sell-out?

Wow, I can't believe how upset some of you are by this. Everywhere you look on the web there are ads, AP does something different instead of throwing a thousand banner ads and people get up in arms.

Running a website isn't free, and it's not even like the ad is off topic. They aren't trying to sell us sports cars or tell us who to vote for.

Lighten up.

I will add, however, that the fact that the ad is sponsored should probably be noted in the title instead of in small text after you click.

No. No. No. This is lame. Now I will never trust a single good thing written about Room and Board on AT again. This sort of pandering to advertisers is why I dumped Met Home. It poisons any faith the reader might have that the editorial content isn't completely compromised. If this continues, I will take my page views elsewhere.

Apologies and regrets are in order, Maxwell.

Magazines do this all the time. They have pages of ads that resemble content superficially that have "advertisement" written at the top. It's not unethical as long as it's clear. The people who run the site need to make a living for their efforts...the efforts you readers enjoy at no cost.

If you can't skip a post which says "sponsored" and respect the site, then you might consider how you'd feel about working for free because you offer a service customers not only don't want to pay for but are snippy about being exposed to advertising in. People need to develop a better sense of how sites work. This isn't an egregious ethical violation as long as it's not trying to trick you into thinking it's something it's not. And it isn't.

Good point Orchid. I know I don't work 50 hours a week out of the goodness of my heart. Bloggers need to make a livable wage too. Calm down everyone.

It really annoys me when some readers respond to others with pithy phrases like "lighten up" or "calm down" as if we are running around flailing our arms about and throwing a fit. I respect this website. I respect the fact that the people who run it can do what they want with it. I also understand that there is nothing unethical about the post. But when the content shifts to something I personally find jarring, I point it out because this website permits that. I respect that too.

Maxwell,

I agree with the other commenters against this practice, articles on this website should be written by your staff, not by advertisers. It doesn't matter that a disclaimer was posted beneath the article title. As visitors to the website we read these articles with some assumption of journalistic neutrality in their writing and I must admit that I did not and do not confirm the existence of small typeface disclaimers. However if this practice continues, I will simply stop visiting AT as I do not have time nor interest in screening journalism from advertisement.
Do you all need advertisement revenue so badly that you need to stoop to this level?

another reader dismayed by the shameless ad masquerading as a post... more more saddened by the "everyone else is doing it" defense. traditional media (TV, magazines, etc.) have declining readership specifically because of things like this -- while blogs (like AT) attracted viewers by their more independent spirit and less "sponsored" reporting of the topics they covered... so because magazines do this all the time is exactly why self-respecting blogs should NOT do it. while no one's against a living wage, since blogs are alternative media, how about seeking out alternative revenue-generating ideas?... otherwise, methinks, AT has become exactly what it began as an alternative to.