Just as I thought I was safe from overbearing advertisements when I use Instagram, I'm forced to think again. This week, a sample sponsored ad popped up in my feed as Instagram announced they will be incorporating these ads as a part of their new sponsored look. They will be presented just as other photos look, with the availability for users to like and comment, except these ads will include a "sponsored" tag. Plans for sponsored videos are already on the way as well, according to Ad Week.
So far, Instagram has several advertising partners on board with this launch including Michael Kors, Burberry, Levi's, PayPal, Macy's, Ben & Jerry's, General Electric and Starwood.
With these network having a value of $1 billion when it was bought last year, the fact that an advertising component was added should not come as a surprise. This is just one more outlet for consumers to be swallowed by the advertising clutter.
My Instagram by Emily Ruffing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
