Comments

1
What, you thought they gave you twitter for free?

Next up: people who don't realize SLOG is paid for by The Stranger's ad content.
2
@1) This wasn't a sponsored tweet by Twitter; it came directly from the AP's feed.
3
What's next for AP, ads for weed, strippers and hookers?
4
People willingly talk about the products they buy.

Night and day.
5
Whatever did happen to Strangercrombie? Run out of donors?
6
@5) Now it's the "Slog vs. whatever" charity auction, which we've done for NW Harvest the past couple years.
7
When I see a tweet somebody paid to place somewhere that should contain only tweets from people of my choice, I block the sender. If I had a Firefox plugin that would do it automatically, I'd use it.
8
Maybe there's a Chrome setting that will turn it off?
9
On the other hand unfollowing a company on Twitter is pretty damn easy. Much easier than changing your email or unfriending someone. If the ads really bug you, just hit unfollow and go on with your life.

So longer as it's clear what's sponsored and what's not, and so long as it does not become obnoxious, I can't really see faulting news outlets for doing what they can to make a buck these days.
10
..the New York Times even runs little ads on the newspaper's front page. But in those cases, the presentation of the content is categorically different: The ads are in ad boxes and are designed like ads.
Twitter doesn't allow you to put little boxes around tweets. I'm not sure what you are expecting them to do.

Don't you think by preceding the ad by the all-capped "SPONSORED TWEET," the AP is displaying good faith rather than an intention to deceive?
11
I do the same thing as @7.
12
@9: Giffy: Twitter's webapp shows paid-placement tweets from accounts other than those you follow. Unfollowing doesn't do it. You need to block them. If you're nice, you'll refrain from reporting them for spamming in the process.
13
Adblock Plus *may* filter out the paid tweets. I think I started seeing them around the same time I started browsing Twitter on my phone, which definitely does not filter them out.

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