American Behavioral Scientist 1–16 © 2016 SAGE Publications Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0002764216660138 abs.sagepub.com Article Native Advertising as a New Public Relations Tactic Kaye D. Sweetser 1 , Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn 2 , Guy J. Golan 3 , and Asaf Hochman 4 Abstract Using a pretest and posttest online experiment (N = 105), this study empirically explored the impact of native advertising sponsorship disclosure on organization–public relationships (OPR), credibility, brand attitude, and attitude toward the advertisement. Credibility and brand attitude predicted the two OPR factors; however, OPR was not affected by participants’ cognizance of ad sponsorship/disclosure. Brand attitude for obviously sponsored (e.g., ad disclosed) content decreased slightly. However, the presence or absence of sponsorship did not significantly influence either credibility or attitudes toward the advertisement itself. The study also examined perceived information utility. Keywords native advertising, public relations, journalism, sponsored content, brand attitude Many argue that emergence of native advertising tactics blurs the lines between public relations, advertising, and marketing. Even the definition of native advertising draws from these traditionally genre silos. Native advertising describes a relationship between an advertiser and publisher wherein the advertiser (or third-party agency) borrows from the credibility of a publisher by paying to distribute content on the pub- lisher’s platform that resembles the publisher’s own content in format and substance. In recent years, scholars gained interest in the emerging area of native advertis- ing. Sometimes used as an umbrella term and just as often used interchangeably with such terms as sponsored content, partner content, and branded journalism (Wojdynski 1 San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA 2 University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA 3 Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA 4 Outbrain, New York, NY, USA Corresponding Author: Kaye D. Sweetser, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-0001, USA. Email: ksweetser@mail.sdsu.edu 660138ABS XX X 10.1177/0002764216660138American Behavioral ScientistSweetser et al. research-article 2016 at Syracuse University Libraries on July 28, 2016 abs.sagepub.com Downloaded from