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Last edited by Mad_Scientist on Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:13 am; edited 1 time in total

So, umn, yeah, let's try to avoid sniping at each other.

Regarding advertorials, yes they are marked in the thumbnail, and also in the article itself. But not everyone is gonna view one from the thumbnail (for example, for myself in this case I saw links to this on twitter and found it through there) and it's easy to skim over the "paid advertisement" and "advertorial" part of the article near the top as they are in smaller text than the title.

I've done so myself for advertorials in the past, though every time I did I realized pretty soon, because most advertorials are pretty blatant. Like just using this one as an example, let's look at literally the first paragraph.

That's rather glowing praise right off the bat, and just seems a bit off. And then the third paragraph...

Uh, what?

So yeah, most advertorials make themselves obvious even if people miss the markers at the top, so I can see why some would ask "who cares?"

Well, the first answer is that obvious to some people is not obvious to others, and some advertorials, especially those more cleverly worded, WILL take some people in. I know that ANN isn't exactly raking in the big bucks, far from it from what I understand, so I'm willing to tolerate advertorials despite this, but I do definitely think they need to be especially scrutinized.

The second answer is, even if this were just a clearly marked banner ad for Happy Science, I still wouldn't like it, because well, they're a literal creepy nationalist cult.

Anyways, I'm sure that some ANN folks will have more of a response in the days to come. Looking at the advertorial out of context, it looks bizarre, weird, but not necessarily harmful (if you didn't know anything about Happy Science) so I can easily see this as potentially being a case where whoever approved this advertorial had no idea really what they were approving.

That's... not actually good though, hence my previous post where I said ANN needs to review it's standards/practices regarding stuff like this.

Holy shit

I don’t care how much they paid you, this is really bad

Don't have much to add to what's been said, just... please no ads for Happy Science. Not a great look.

I thought paid subscribers didn't have to see ads. So why am I seeing this ad pop up among other ads presented as articles?

I'm just laughing over how you really can't get more "obviously a cult" than something called the Los Angeles Awareness Film Festival.

Seriously though, I'm almost worried that Happy Science have been successful in recruiting anime fans through having so many popular seiyuu in this movie, especially a lot of the male seiyuu who do a lot of live events (with fans who go to crazy lengths for tickets), who play characters that have fans spending tons of money on getting enough buttons of them to make an ita bag.

It wasn't this cult, but I actually did meet some people at an event who ~wanted to be friends~ and then they... started texting me about introducing me to the most powerful buddha in Japan, who helped them get straight A's, and get front-row tickets to every event... yep, nevermind.

But passion is something that you can ignite, but you can't control, and... I hope the industry realizes that and gets people to turn it down a bit before anything bad happens.

Compared to Sword Art Online advocating, promoting and normalizing rape culture, this is nothing compared to that filth. Scientology is silly, Happy Science is silly, this movie looks silly.

Hey, where are all the people who usually defend the site when people complain when ANN posts an article about a controversal topic by saying ANN simply reports on anime, the good and bad. Don't tell me they only say that when it's an article that aligns with their political beliefs Laughing

because that'd be a bad look for them...

No, but seriously, like it or not, Laws of the Universe is an anime. If there's news, or advertorials for it, it's on topic. The movie did better than a lot of other movies did last year in Japan, including critical darlings like Liz and the Blue Bird, Isle of Dogs, Crazy Rich Asians, and the Emoji Movie. To completely shut out an anime because it has the 'wrong' politics would set a pretty dangerous president, especially for a new site meant to inform people.

Cardcaptor Takato wrote:

Can we be back to the topic instead of insulting me or do I have to call a mod?

??
I swear some people shouldn't be frequenting forums when someone disagreeing even slightly is already too much for them.

In any case this is some bs article ANN.
Your Ronald McDonald CEO has done it again.

Lord Oink wrote:

To completely shut out an anime because it has the 'wrong' politics would set a pretty dangerous president, especially for a new site meant to inform people.

If ANN was simply reporting on it, I, for one, would have no problem with that. This isn't that -- this is a paid advertisement masquerading as an editorial. The very concept of an "advertorial" is that it's designed to trick people who don't look closely into thinking that it's an editorial. This is not reporting or an honest opinion piece in any way; ANN is literally taking money to advertise for a cult. You don't understand why people might have a problem with that?

The bruh-ha-ha over this is incredibly overplayed.

1. This isn't an ad for Happy Science. This is an ad for an anime film they created that was released by Eleven Arts. One can view the film without becoming brainwashed into the cult. Hell, one can enjoy the film without becoming a cult member.
2. I don't like the idea of "no, we can't advertise this anime." This is a slippery, censorship-filled slope. "We can't advertise this anime because it has cult ties." "We can't advertise this anime because it has loli fanservice and that's gross." And so on and so on.

Freedom of speech allows these cults to have outlets for their voice. Networks like ESPN likely run ads for the Scientology Network for the same reason.

The only limit, in my opinion, should be when advertising to children. It has been shown in the past that young children have trouble distinguishing advertisements from actual content. Anime News Network isn't a children's site. The userbase here should be old enough to recognize something as an ad (especially when it's literally labeled as "ad"), click if they wanna read it, don't click if they don't, watch it if they want, don't watch it if they don't. It's as simple as that.

Last edited by Cab329 on Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:38 am; edited 1 time in total

So, I know the editors and writers had no idea this was going to go up (based on their reactions on Twitter) and it was just sales or whoever handles advertisers. Kind of hope they’re getting a dressing down but what really shocks me is Eleven Arts is distributing it, the same company that got Maquia brought over.

That’s pretty scary in my opinion since it gives a lot of cred to the film

EDIT: I don’t know much about distribution so I cut out my wondering of why Eleven Arts is distributing it. Still think it’s worrisome though

CatSword wrote:

1. This isn't an ad for Happy Science. This is an ad for an anime film they created that was released by Eleven Arts. One can view the film without becoming brainwashed into the cult. Hell, one can enjoy the film without becoming a cult member.

You are correct, it is technically an ad for an ad for Happy Science, but the extra level of indirection there is really unnecessary. I don't have any problem with somebody who wants to watch the film or if somebody writes an honest opinion piece about it. I find ads masquerading as editorials to be a bit distasteful in the first place, but one for cult propaganda is crossing the line.

CatSword wrote:

2. I don't like the idea of "no, we can't advertise this anime." This is a slippery, censorship-filled slope. "We can't advertise this anime because it has cult ties." "We can't advertise this anime because it has loli fanservice and that's gross." And so on and so on.

I am as anti-censorship as you can get, and no, these things aren't the same at all. Declining to advertise something is not censorship in any way. It still exists, is unmodified, and anybody who wants to see it can go do so.

CatSword wrote:

Freedom of speech allows these cults to have outlets for their voice. Networks like ESPN likely run ads for the Scientology Network for the same reason.

Freedom of speech prevents the government from censoring them. The government is not involved at all here. Also, ESPN is a terrible network and I can't believe "This is ok because ESPN does it" is something that somebody would ever write.

CatSword wrote:

The only limit, in my opinion, should be when advertising to children. ... Anime News Network isn't a children's site.

I hate to tell you this, but there's no age gate on ANN, ANN reports on children's media, and there are definitely people under the age of 18 who come here regularly. Children are going to see and read this and not realize it's a paid ad.

You know between this whole Happy Science thing on top of last years whole Otaku Coin/Palmer Luckey thing....its fair to start to really wonder about Chris Macdonald. I can't really blame the ANN staff members since they are all in open revolt about this over on Twitter and good on them for it. Anyday now I expect to see some sort of article or something along the lines of "Oopsie! We messed up again! We got in bed for a business relationship with some really ethically questionable people! Again! I dont know how this keeps happening!"

I can see the stance from Macdonald now that they sold ads to Eleven Arts and not Happy Science directly. Sort of fair on its face, but it just goes to show that someone isn't doing their research. Like, it can't just keep happening over and over. How much benefit of the doubt am I supposed to give?

CatSword wrote:

2. I don't like the idea of "no, we can't advertise this anime." This is a slippery, censorship-filled slope. "We can't advertise this anime because it has cult ties." "We can't advertise this anime because it has loli fanservice and that's gross." And so on and so on.

This literally isn't a slippery slope at all, dude. There is a gigantic gap between a show that has elements you find unpleasant and a show made by a cult. And, conveniently, very little of the latter exists. Having some vague standards isn't going to lead to the cops taking away your loli fanservice, man.

MesousaGaby wrote:

Compared to Sword Art Online advocating, promoting and normalizing rape culture, this is nothing compared to that filth. Scientology is silly, Happy Science is silly, this movie looks silly.

Happy Science does real world harm, they aren't just 'silly.' People have had their lives ruined because of them, and they're always there during natural disasters to try and divert donations away from public resources that actually need them. Tons of people gave up their life savings to them because they thought it'd keep them safe from tsunamis or earthquakes. And also they have a pretty weird habit of recruiting actresses that are 18-21 and then never letting them speak to their parents again!

You can't wokely brush this off.

I've removed the advertorial from ANN. The advertorial was purchased by a regular client and our sales team was not informed that it was for a religious propaganda movie. Only the team member who received the advertorial from the client and uploaded it became aware of its content. This team member was not aware of the history or controversy surrounding the content and had never been made aware of ANN's position on not promoting religious or political propaganda.

I personally apologize for this last bit. It had never occurred to me while training this new team member (it's something that comes up extremely rarely) when they took these duties over from me. This was a mistake on my part, and I will address it by updating our long out of date written advertising policy in the coming months.

Talkback regarding the articles content is welcome to continue in this thread. I would ask that anyone wishing to discuss ANN's advertising policy start a new thread in our feedback forum.

-Christopher Macdonald

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