This started off as a comment on Sarah Tanner’s blog, then I decided that if I was going to write an uncharacteristically long-assed comment, then it would serve me better to put it on the blog. Shall I go with numbers too? Yeah, let’s do that.

The question was:

Does Running An Ad Equal Product Endorsement?

1. To the question, my answer is yes. More or less. If there’s an advert on your blog, then I think the implication is that you as the blog owner, whilst not necessarily endorsing the product, would appear to at least not have a problem with the ad. This may not be tacit approval, per se, but conclusions can and will be drawn by others who see the ad in question. No amount of involved ethics ruminations are going to change that.

As a blog owner, you either give a rat’s arse about the speculation or you don’t, but you shouldn’t be surprised if people do question the fact that the ad is there.

2. The SBs may not be The Guardian or The New York Times, but here in Romanceland, they are the equivalent of those two publications, which means that what they do and say are taken notice of. (more…)