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Comment by whatshisface | Hacker News Reader

This entire article is an advertisement for a specific product. I remember when planted articles had to subtly nudge the readers towards a belief that implied they should buy a product, but apparently that's not a necessary form of subterfuge anymore.

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"Strange Brews is a BBC Travel series that invites you to indulge in one-of-a-kind beers from all over the world."

I really don't see what is strange or supposedly immoral about it.

Newspapers have run articles covering specific restaurants or foods since time immemorial, since it is informative to the readers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/dining/against-the-grain....

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/dec/09/christmas-spiri...

Newspapers and magazines don't have policies of going to strange lengths to avoid using brand names in other areas of their output due to being publicly funded entities, mind you.

It’s literally a series of profiles of different beers, and clearly billed as such.

There’s literally nothing strange about journalism that reviews and profiles different kinds of products, from restaurant reviews to album or movie reviews or a blog with fashion tips.

That’s not the same thing as advertising, and the difference isn’t particularly confusing.

It is not clearly phrased and titled as a review. It looks like an article on history.

And it is indeed not a review: a review gives you pros and cons and so on with a neutral outlook and without fluff.

The article is quite sneaky and in that it's advertising.

It doesn’t matter what it looks like, if it wasn’t paid for, but was in fact produced by a news organization as journalism, then it’s not an advertisement.

The word advertising has a meaning.

Only if you read just one. Keep going and the next 3 are all about the same topic. It’s HN that’s deceiving you by linking to something without context.

Just look at the side bar: Strange Brews offers a taste of exceptional, exclusive beers from all over the globe. Check back each week in December to discover new brew.

I don’t think you can read that and expect it to be anything other than what it is.

The BBC is not allowed to engage in advertising like this in any capacity, except for BBC worldwide which this isn't. Which is great, especially as I can let my 3yo watch half an hour of bbc children's tv without her brain being infected by advertising for 100 different products in various insidious ways.

Haha! Like Disney channel! But, spoiler alert, eventually they get a tablet and discover of adults with silly voices unwrapping kids’ toys on YouTube. There’s not even a cartoon to watch. It’s all infomercial...

Well, this is a British publication and an Irish product. Britain and Ireland are separate countries (apart from the small part of Ireland that isn't).

It'd be weird if a travel, culture and food publication couldn't do an article on Casu Marzu or Champagne so I don't see why this is any different.

I disagree. I don't drink, and therefore as an advertisement this would be completely undesirable for me to read yet I still found it quite an interesting idea and story.

Well, it is part of a series called 'Strange Brews'.[1] So it is not entirely unexpected that they would play up the story when the point of it is to introduce you to that particular beer.

[1] - http://www.bbc.com/travel/columns/strange-brews

I was also confused until I read until the end, especially since its a BBC article. Might have been worth putting the little explainer about the series at the top (instead of the bottom) of the article.

I have previously commented on this poster, but didn't win much traction. She's a travel editor or some such thing at the BBC. Her posts here and in other fora consist solely of links under her own professional wing. She never, ever follows up, comments, or take part in any subsequent discussion. In my minority view, this fits fairly well under all known definitions of spamming.

News outlets and magazines can cover commercial products from an editorial perspective without it being an 'ad'. BBC News frequently runs stories about TV shows, new Apple products, Windows releases, and similar commercial stuff.

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