The Sunday Express ran a two-page spread yesterday for HomeSun, the solar electricity company. It offered readers the chance to have a free solar system installed in their house.
At the top of both pages, headlined "Solar so good... with HomeSun", there was a clear label very properly stating that it was an "advertising feature".
But readers who turned on a couple of pages would then have found a "news story", Give yourself a warm glow that was a virtual re-run of the advertising content.
It was little more than a puff for the offer, with approving quotes from a HomeSun spokeswoman and the company's chief executive.
Readers were told that people living "in a typical three-bedroomed house" can save £200 a year by "installing solar panels on the roof".
I suspect that the byline "Ronald Yeats" is one of those house names (he was unknown to the Northern & Shell Network switchboard operator when I called this morning).
It's a clear breach of journalistic ethics to run advertorial copy masquerading as editorial. Not that the Sunday Express cares a toss about ethics (a county to the east of London, perhaps?)
Then again, it seems as though the paper's readership is becoming aware of its lack-lustre content and deserting in droves. According to the latest ABC results, the Sunday Express had average sales of 568,740 an issue during July, almost 12% fewer than the same month a year ago.
