people who don't inhale news simply don't notice bylines. They're practically invisible. It's possible this is different at BuzzFeed, where reporters develop a loyal following, but I doubt it. I'll bet 90 percent of their readers never even notice their bylines.
And I'm pretty certain the folks at BuzzFeed know this perfectly well. They do everything they can to make advertising look staff-written, including in tone, style, and format, but leave themselves an out by putting corporate bylines on the ads and pretending that everyone will notice them.
This is well said, but it leaves out what is to me the simplest case against Buzzfeed: if the point is not to fool people, why make the advertising look like Buzzfeed stories at all? If we're to believe that people are simply too savvy to notice the difference, then why go to the trouble at all? Why not just make the advertising completely different and separate from the editorial content? And why would advertisers be willing to pay more for Buzzfeed's type of advertising than the alternative?
The answer to these questions, of course, is that fooling people is the entire business model.
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