WE CAN’T GO ON TOGETHER, WITH SUSPICIOUS MINDS

As Native advertising becomes increasingly embedded in live entertainment, from product placement, to Instagram ‘features’ and Influencers, a paper out this week aims to disentangle the dynamics of the Disclosure Dilemma…

First impressions are fast impressions, especially when you’re a member of the deadliest species on the planet (after mosquitos).  Typically humans make judgements about trustworthiness on the basis of a 100 millisecond* glimpse of another human’s face. That’s quite literally in the blink of an eye.

These snap evaluations, so vital for survival in the wild (and down dark alleys on Saturday nights in some postcodes) find echoes in mechanisms which have evolved for coping with a different kind of threat: attacks on our wallets and bank balances by advertisers and marketeers. And perhaps equally importantly, they protect us from that awful feeling of having been suckered.  And it’s not just Elf that falls for the ‘Best Cup Of Coffee In The World' routine. Some years back a colleague, (now a very senior entertainment executive) bundled three of us in a cab for $150 dollar, one-hour round-trip from the luxurious Mandalay Bay hotel to a most unprepossessing diner in an industrial estate somewhere in the Nevada dessert promoted as “The Best Breakfast In Vegas.”  We were greeted at the door by the owner-cum-proprietor-cum-chef-cum-waitress who beamed, “I guess you folks must have read the article, then!”

A number of theories attempt to shed light on the scepticism that can kick in when engaging with advertising, as referenced in this new study, including:

1)    The Persuasion Knowledge Model** or 'PKM' suggests that three basic strands of advertising awareness underpin consumers’ resistance to persuasion techniques:

a)     Topic Knowledge -what they know about the goods or services on offer;

b)    Agent Knowledge – what they know about the brand or seller;

c)     Persuasion Knowledge -what they know about the tactics being used to persuade them.

2)    The CARE Model*** (Covert Advertising Recognition and Effects) outlines the pathways by which consumers detect covert advertising as compared to overt advertising:

 a)     Bottom-up (content-driven) -consumers detect cues like branding, tone or formatting that hint at a persuasive undertone;

b)    Top-down (disclosure-driven) -consumers recognize this as advertising because of banners, buttons, labels, etc. 

3)    Schema Theory**** proposes that individuals facing tsunamis of incomplete information reach for pre-prepared templates (‘schema’) to provide short-cuts to help them navigate the data storm.  In this context, a native advertiser may attempt to activate a consumer’s ‘editorial/content schema’, but instead triggers the consumer’s ‘advertising schema’ (informed by their Persuasion Knowledge ABOVE) and so suspicion immediately kicks in.

4)   The Dual Process Model (think Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow) also relies on the notion of cognitive short-cuts (‘heuristics’) to aid information management.

The study published this week***** sets out to explore the mechanism of ‘learned avoidance’ with the following three research questions:

Q1 (component attention): In a realistic mobile-first feed, how does total gaze time on sponsored posts differ from that on adjacent organic posts?

Q2 (component attention): Within sponsored posts, how is visual attention apportioned among the four core subareas (content, branding elements, disclosure and call-to-action buttons) when competing directly with organic content?

Q3 (ad-flag dynamics): How do early fixations on disclosure labels or call-to-action buttons influence subsequent engagement with the rest of the post, thus leading to the “blending in” versus “standing out” dilemma?

Methods:

152 participants were randomly assigned to ‘one of three Instagram feeds containing both sponsored and organic posts.’ The researchers then used eye-tracking techniques, immediately followed by qualitative (CRTA******) interviews to take the participants back through their gaze-patterns to try and uncover why their attention had been engaged by some elements (e.g. ad disclosures and call-to-action buttons) and had ignored others.

Headline Results:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 'it ain’t what you do, but the way that you do it,' that counts when promoting via Native advertising. The research did, as you would expect, produce variations in dwell times and attention between covert and overt advertising, but the differences reflected a number of variables:  

‘The findings reveal that ad recognition is a multi-layered cognitive process shaped by visual, textual and structural cues. Participants relied on multiple design elements to identify advertising with variations in the immediacy and accuracy of their recognition. This is shaped by aesthetics, thematic relevance, cognitive load and long term exposure effects. While some users exhibited strong predispositions toward avoiding sponsored content, others engaged when certain psychological triggers were activated… The data highlight that the design elements of social media posts play a fundamental role in recognition.’

And, as ever, timing is crucial:

‘Sponsored posts received significantly less dwell time and fewer fixations than their organic counterparts, indicating persistent ad avoidance despite a native design. Moreover, early fixation on disclosures or CTA elements in sponsored posts triggered an immediate decline in further engagement, functioning as ‘flags’ that activated learned avoidance.  CRTA data revealed divergent user interpretations: some participants felt misled by the subtlety of sponsored posts, whereas others remained unaware of disclosures until late in their viewing…

...These findings point to an evolving form of ‘native ad blindness’ shaped by rapid heuristic scanning and schema-based recognition of minimal ad signals.  Conceptually, this study refines theories of banner blindness, persuasion knowledge, and dual process filtering, providing practical insights for advertisers seeking to balance transparency with user engagement amid competition from non-sponsored content.’

That said, however, the article concludes on the broader matter of longer term brand strategy:

‘…Designing for trust, not just click-through, may ultimately foster more sustainable and respectful user-brand relationships.’

…Because whenever you do decide to raise your flag, and show your true colours, if you’ve done your homework, your disclosures won’t always be perceived as a plundering pirate ship’s skull and crossbones. You never know, your ads might even be perceived as the hand of friendship reaching really good things across the cybersphere.

DT 16 August, 2025

*Wills and Todorov, 2006. Longer viewing times didn’t change the core impression, just confidence in it.

** Friestad and Wright, 1994

***Wojdynski and Evans, 2020

****Axelrod 1973

***** Blending in or standing out? The disclosure dilemma of ad cues of social media native advertising Maike Hübner, Julia Thalmann, Jörg Henseler Frontiers In Psychology, 13-8-25

****** Covert Advertising Recognition and Effects interview, Bruun et al 2021