Selling It

There was a fun segment on Good Morning, America this morning, about saving money on pet-care expenses. The reporter mentioned a couple of apps, suggested grooming your dog yourself instead of going to a doggy salon, and twice mentioned Amazon Prime as a good source of discounted items, even after the $99 annual fee.

After the segment, one of the anchors teased an upcoming story then we went to a commercial. Can you guess what the commercial was for? That's right, Amazon Prime.

So when the reporter in the story recommends using Amazon Prime for dog supplies, is that objective information for consumers, or is it a commercial disguised as objective information? I don't know for sure but I'd bet that Amazon paid a fee for their placement in the story as well as for the commercial time. In other words, the story was really a commercial.