Let’s be honest. When I write a story for a client (call it sponsored content or–my personal favorite–a content solution), I first have to agree to the deliverables —what does the client want, when is it wanted, and how is it to be done to their speicifications. The more sophisticated the client, the more sophisticated and subtle the marketing proposition will be—— included directly or indirectly in the content.

In my old profession, as a journalist, the deliverable at best was the truth. I had to consider the who, what, when, and how of a story. And in a longer piece I got to do foot-work, I got to research, to take time, to dig stuff up, to think for myself, and I got to try and connect the dots, to make sense for the reader how the story figured in the larger scheme of things.

Today, when writing sponsored content, I also research, but if I come across something that does not support the client’s claim for their business/product, or inadvertently promotes a competitor, I know enough to leave it out even if it is true and even if it might help the reader understand something better, or reach an understanding on their own, of their own.

The real (ethical, if you will) problem with content-solution, custom publishing writing is that it is deeply dishonest to the reader. The reader is left not knowing what they don’t know. And the writer is complicit in making that happen. Why then does the writer do it? Because he or she is quite simply getting paid to tell it the way the client wants it to be told—no matter how “unbiased” it may come off sounding. (Good content solution writers are adept at balanced-sounding, but in fact one-sided pieces).

So go ahead, as a writer, call it what you want. Me? I call it for what it is. I don’t need to spell it out to you. After all, words are our job. What’s no longer our job as “sponsored content providers” is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.