April JADA includes a new section called "Product News" in which various products are featured in a manner similar to that of certain tabloid publications. I was somewhat chagrined to see that each page of the section contains the header "Advertorial." According to Merriam-Webster, an advertorial is "an advertisement that imitates editorial format."
I suppose one could interpret that definition as "an advertisement disguised as an editorial," because that’s how I perceive such items when I see them in newspapers and magazines. Because of that, I would argue that JADA has no business publishing advertorials. Of course, these items in JADA are not advertorials. The advertising content is obvious, but where is the editorial format? There is none. So why not label these items as what they really are—advertisements?
