Reddit introduces a new ad format that looks similar to posts made by users | TechCrunch

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Reddit introduces a new ad format that looks similar to posts made by users | TechCrunch
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I don’t visit Reddit much anymore, but isn’t that the way ads have been for awhile over there?

It is...but they need to highlight it to investors now.

Yes, they're taking from the Apple playbook so people who don't know will think they actually do things that don't involve leather or sheep at Reddit HQ. It's IPO shenanigans.

It's totally possible to hold a negative opinion of something and not bring up your unrelated distaste for Apple.

It's also totally possible to admit that Apple does what I described, frequently. Distaste is irrelevant.

When talking about advertising, though, Apple's actions have been pretty amazing for the consumer.

So to bring up an unrelated negative thing they might do in a thread that has nothing to do with them or their business is kind of weird.

It's like you can't stop thinking about Apple.

It's like you can't stop thinking about Apple.

The advertising worked!

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It used to be, they were called sponsored links, but the comment sections got filled with angry comments about the ads and people would downvote the shit out of them, then they removed comments, and after the redesign ads didn't have threads/engagement but now they do.

One of my friends tried advertising that way and it went poorly, and the ads weren't even for a real product just a test balloon for the concept.

Pepe also got very mad when your ad replaced the moose in the sidebar.

Ironically, it was spez who introduced sponsored links with comments then, so what's old is new again! I wonder if this time will be different... (Not really, I know how this will end)

When I was still using Reddit, I used to report those ad posts for terrorism, inappropriate content or whatever term like that.

The difference is companies used to just run their own super cheap bots to spam fake "engagement" to the site. Now since the API is gone they have to pay Reddit directly for the privilege.

On "old reddit" the posts were highlighted so you could tell

I think with the new Facebook style feed it might not be.

I think the differentiation is in who's placing the ad.

There were sponsored ads before where a company reached out to Reddit and bought advertisements and read it took the money for them and posted them. They were labeled as sponsored.

But since the beginning of Reddit, advertising firms have just posted nearly blatant ads without notifying anyone.

Sounds to me like reddit's just removing he sponsored indicator from their sponsored ad sales.

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