Covert Marketing Unmasked: A Legal and Regulatory Guide for Practices that Mask Marketing Messages

Abstract

Masked marketing—one form of covert marketing—involves marketing communications that appear to be from independent third parties rather than from product marketers. This article presents a typology of masked marketing practices, illustrating whether they may be deceptive to consumers. To accomplish this, the authors apply the Federal Trade Commission's three-part definition of deception (i.e., misleadingness, reasonable consumer, and materiality) in the evaluation of such practices. The article concludes with policy recommendations including areas for further research.

Examining the Covert Nature of Product Placement: Implications for Public Policy

“…Regulations concerning the use of PP primarily focus on television, with film, music, and interactive media largely unregulated (c.f., Lackey, 1993;Petty & Andrews, 2008;Snyder, 1992). Legal frameworks focus on the separation principle: that advertising and editorial content must be clearly demarcated to consumers (a framework that is applied to print media, television, and radio) (Siegel, 2004).…”

Factors Influencing the Implementation of Unconventional Marketing in Cultural Institutions – Evidence from Croatia

“…According to Kennett and Matthews (2008), Egan (2007), McAllister and Turow (2002), Petty and Andrews (2008), McNaughton (2008), Carls (2012), Carudcci (2006) and Zuo and Veil (2006), guerrilla marketing can be found in literature under the following names:…”

Tactical deception in covert selling: A persuasion knowledge perspective

“…In comparison, covert marketers often hide or disguise selling-related information such as commissions, sponsorships, and affiliations. Petty and Andrews (2008) argue that covertness is a kind of 'misleading omission' and creates a false sense of trust because marketers do not disclose qualifying information necessary for consumers to make well-informed decisions.…”

“…For instance, consumers can be exposed to useful products in entertaining ways that they would not otherwise learn about. Some proponents argue that covert marketing should be evaluated not only in terms of the tactic-aspect but also the outcomes, or the 'greater good' (Petty and Andrews 2008). To date, it remains inconclusive as to what extent consumers consider the outcomes and to what extent the outcomes justifies the covert tactics.…”

“…Many argue that covert marketing is devious, unethical, and even illegal in some cases (Kaikati and Kaikati 2004;Petty and Andrews 2008). The escalating controversy surrounding covert marketing is made apparent by an increasing number of scholarly studies (e.g., Martin and Smith 2008;Rotfeld 2008) and regulatory interventions (FTC 2005(FTC , 2006(FTC , 2008(FTC , 2009.…”