• Ad Age, Friday, June 16, 2006 12:15 PM

A new survey reveals that a surprisingly large number--48.9 percent--of senior marketing executives admitted to paying for placing mention of their brands in print and broadcast media outlets. Observers said the results of the survey of 266 chief marketing officers, marketing vice presidents, and directors by PRWeek magazine and PR agency Manning Selvage & Lee reflected as poorly on the marketing executives as it did on the media. "This type of behavior is as harmful to PR professionals as it is to consumers and the media," said Manning Selvage & Lee CEO Mark Hass. The publishers mixing editorial and advertising most likely are consumer-product glossies, but Mr. Hass said their lax standards harm the image of media in general. "When people see the erosion of concepts like objectivity, they start to lose faith in any organization claiming to be objective." The survey also found that half of those who haven't paid for placement said they would if they had the opportunity. Media experts found the survey's findings appalling. "I think there is a very short lifespan for publishers with no standards," said Alex Jones, director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

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