How Should an Advertorial Be Labelled in Turkey?

“Advertorial” is not a term that appears in the legislation

The definitions article of the Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices (Article 4(1)) contains no separate definition of “advertorial”, “sponsored content”, “partnership” or “product placement”. The Regulation captures the phenomenon not by its name but by the conduct involved. In practice, content of the kind we call an advertorial falls within the scope of four separate provisions:

• Law No. 6502, Article 61(4) — presenting a brand in news format without stating clearly that it is advertising is surreptitious advertising, and it is prohibited.
• Regulation, Article 6(3) — advertising must be clearly distinguishable, visually and aurally, from editorial content.
• Regulation, Article 6(4) and 6(5) — where a title, logo, set, music or sound effect identified with a publication or with news bulletins is used in an advertisement, the fact that the message is advertising must be easily noticeable.
• Regulation, Article 23(1)-(2) — the proportionality, right-to-inform and no-inducement-to-purchase tests applied to articles and news items that mention a brand.

Basis 1: Article 61 of Law No. 6502 and the words “in any medium”

The Law defines commercial advertising as follows (Article 61(1)): “Commercial advertising means announcements in the nature of marketing communication made by advertisers in any medium in written, visual, aural and similar ways, in connection with a trade, business, craft or profession, for the purpose of securing the sale or rental of a good or service, or of informing or persuading the members of a target audience.”

The phrase “in any medium” is decisive: the definition draws no distinction between media. Article 4(1)(ı) of the Regulation likewise names the internet expressly when defining a medium, referring to “communication channels such as television, print media of all kinds, the internet, telephone, radio and cinema”. Sponsored content on an online news site is therefore commercial advertising by definition.

Surreptitious advertising is defined in Article 61(4): “The inclusion, for advertising purposes and in a promotional manner, of the name, brand, logo or other distinctive form or expression relating to goods or services, or of trade names or business names, in articles, news items, broadcasts and programmes without it being clearly stated that this is advertising, is deemed surreptitious advertising. Surreptitious advertising, whether aural, written or visual, is prohibited in every communication medium.” The paragraph names “news items” expressly, which puts the advertorial directly in its sights.

Article 61(7) identifies three categories of addressee for the obligation: “Advertisers, advertising agencies and media outlets are obliged to comply with the provisions of this Article.” A news site is the owner or operator of the internet medium on which the advertising appears, so it is a media outlet within the meaning of Article 4(1)(i) of the Regulation and the obligation is addressed directly to it. For the detail of this distinction, see our separate piece on who the penalty for surreptitious advertising is applied to and under which subparagraph.

Basis 2: Article 6 of the Regulation — distinguishing advertising

Article 6 of the Regulation is the heart of the labelling question. Its first paragraph: “Whatever its form and whatever the medium in which it is published, it must be clearly understood that an advertisement is an advertisement.”

The third paragraph targets the advertorial directly: “Advertisements must be clearly distinguishable from editorial content, both visually and aurally.”

The fourth and fifth paragraphs prohibit imitation of editorial format: “Where a title, logo, set or music identified with an article, broadcast or programme published in any medium is used in an advertisement, consumers must be able to notice easily that the message in question is advertising.” (paragraph 4) and “Where an image or sound effect identified with news bulletins or with public service announcements is used in an advertisement, consumers must be able to notice easily that the message in question is advertising.” (paragraph 5)

The law regulates the outcome, not the form

The central proposition of this article is this: the legislation sets an outcome standard and leaves the form free. Article 6(1) says it must be “clearly understood” that the item is advertising; it does not say by which word, in which font size, in which colour, or where on the page that understanding must be produced. The yardstick is the perception of the average consumer as defined in Article 4(1)(j) of the Regulation — that is, a reader “acting for purposes other than commercial or professional ones, who is reasonably well informed”.

The practical consequence is that in an inspection, the defence “but we did put a label on it” does not suffice on its own; you have to show that the label was in fact perceptible to the reader. The Advertising Board conducts its examination on the file, under Article 63(8) of Law No. 6502; there is no hearing. That is why a screenshot taken at the moment of publication and an archive record are decisive evidence.

There is NO font size, contrast or placement measure for the internet

The Regulation introduces measurable formal standards for two media only. Article 19(1) ties television formats to line height, and Article 19(2) ties print media and brochures to font size. The internet is not listed separately; Article 19(5) leaves a general standard for the remaining media: “In advertisements published in media other than those listed above, subtitles, static text and footnotes must be of a legible size.”

This has to be stated honestly: the Regulation contains no font size, contrast ratio or label placement rule specific to the internet as a medium. This does not look like an oversight but like a deliberate choice to tie the requirement to an outcome rather than fix a measurement.

By contrast, the legibility criteria in Article 21(1) are capable of being applied without distinction between media: the contrast and relative luminance of the text must permit reading; text placed over a moving background must be set on an opaque, single-colour block; and exaggerated, complex or italic characters and effects or shading that make reading difficult must not be used. When there is an argument about whether a label counts as “legible”, this is the most concrete criterion available to you.

There is no mandatory label wording either

The Regulation makes none of the expressions “Advertisement”, “Sponsored”, “Partnership” or “Advertorial” mandatory. Nor does it regulate where on the page the label is to be placed — above the headline, in the imprint, in the first paragraph. The question therefore has to be asked the other way round: not “does this expression appear in the Regulation?” but “does the average reader who sees this expression understand, before starting to read the text, that it is advertising?” The second is the question that will be asked in an inspection.

What to do in practice — labelling as a recommendation

The list and templates below are not legal requirements; they are formal details with no counterpart in the legislation. Their function is to produce the outcome that Articles 6(1) and 6(3) look for.

• Keep the label on the same screen as the headline; a label that requires the reader to scroll runs the risk of being treated as not perceived.
• Carry the label not only on the content page but also onto the home-page card, the category listing, the RSS title and the social sharing text; readers most often encounter the item in a listing.
• Do not put a reporter’s name on the byline. Use the advertising desk or the brand name; a reporter’s byline strengthens the editorial impression.
• Separate the advertorial template from the editorial template visually: a different background tone, frame or typography. This is precisely what Article 6(3) asks for.
• Keep the label at the same size as the body text or larger; a small footnote at the bottom of the page is a weak solution in terms of Article 6(1).
• Write into the contract that the content will be labelled as advertising; if the advertiser demands otherwise, that demand is separately problematic under Article 22(2) of the Regulation.

SUGGESTED LABEL WORDINGS
(NO wording is made mandatory by the legislation — the following are
editorial suggestions.)

1) Paid content, copy supplied by the advertiser:
     ADVERTISEMENT
     SPONSORED CONTENT

2) Paid content, copy written by the publisher:
     ADVERTISEMENT — produced in partnership with [Brand Name]
     PARTNER CONTENT — [Brand Name]

3) No payment made, product/service supplied free of charge:
     The product for this review was supplied free of charge by [Brand Name].

4) Promoting your own product (you are the advertiser in this item):
     ADVERTISEMENT — [Publication Name] promotion

USAGES THAT WEAKEN IDENTIFIABILITY:
     "Promotion"           -> ambiguous on its own
     "Continued"           -> strengthens the editorial impression
     "#sponsor"            -> lost inside a stack of tags
     A small-print footnote at the bottom of the page only
     A label on the content page but not in the listing

SUGGESTED PAGE PLACEMENT
(The legislation contains NO placement rule — the layout below is
suggested in order to meet the outcome standard of Articles 6(1) and 6(3).)

[1] Home page / category card  -> Immediately above the headline: ADVERTISEMENT
[2] Content page, above title  -> ADVERTISEMENT · [Brand Name]
[3] Byline                     -> "Advertising Desk" (NOT a reporter's name)
[4] Before the first paragraph -> A one-line explanatory box
[5] End of page                -> "This content was published for payment."
[6] RSS / social sharing text  -> Carry the label in the title as well
[7] Archive record             -> Keep a screenshot of the moment of publication

THE TEST: Does an average reader seeing the item for the first time
understand that it is advertising BEFORE starting to read the text?

Labelling alone is not enough: the Article 23 test

Article 23(1) of the Regulation provides that three conditions are to be taken into account together when assessing articles and news items mentioning a brand from the standpoint of surreptitious advertising. Those conditions are also your line of defence:

• (a) Proportionality: the brand, logo or business name must be “compatible, unexaggerated and proportionate in terms of the format, subject, content, presentation, positioning and duration” of the article in which it appears.
• (b) Right to inform: the article must be published “within the framework of the right to give and disseminate news and to receive information” and must “meet consumers’ need to be informed and enlightened”.
• (c) No inducement: purchase or rental must not be encouraged by special promotional references made “in a manner capable of consciously steering consumer preferences”.

Article 23(2) imposes a concrete prohibition for travel, venue and product-trial pieces: in such content, “elements such as signage or posters may not be brought into prominence in an exaggerated manner and detailed contact information may not be included”. A venue piece containing an address, a telephone number or a campaign link may breach this paragraph regardless of the label.

Who the sanctions are applied to

Under Article 77(12) of Law No. 6502, advertisers, advertising agencies and media outlets that act contrary to the obligations in Article 61 are subject to suspension, corrective advertising by the same method, an administrative fine and, where deemed necessary, suspension as a precautionary measure for up to three months. The Advertising Board may impose these sanctions together or separately. The internet is listed as a separate medium in subparagraph (e) of that paragraph.

For online infringements the closing sentences of Article 77(12) also come into play: the Advertising Board gives notice by electronic means, and if the content is not removed within twenty-four hours of that notice it may order that access be blocked. The decision is sent to the Access Providers Union. For the detail of this mechanism and the institution’s remit, see whether the Advertising Board audits news sites; where content involves an influencer partnership, how that partnership is to be disclosed in a news item is a separate topic.

Pre-publication checklist

ADVERTORIAL PRE-PUBLICATION CHECK

[ ] Is the label on the same screen as the headline and legibly sized?  (Reg. Art. 6(1))
[ ] Does the label also appear in list/card view?                       (Reg. Art. 6(1))
[ ] Is the content visually distinct from the editorial template?       (Reg. Art. 6(3))
[ ] Is news-bulletin or front-page format avoided?                      (Reg. Art. 6(4)-(5))
[ ] Does the byline show the advertising desk instead of a reporter?    (suggestion)
[ ] Is the weight of the brand name in the text proportionate?          (Reg. Art. 23(1)(a))
[ ] Does the content meet a genuine need for information?               (Reg. Art. 23(1)(b))
[ ] Is there any direct inducement to purchase?                         (Reg. Art. 23(1)(c))
[ ] Detailed contact information in a travel/trial piece?               (Reg. Art. 23(2) — PROHIBITED)
[ ] Did the advertiser interfere with editorial decisions?              (Reg. Art. 22(2))
[ ] Is the contrast of subtitles/footnotes suitable for reading?        (Reg. Art. 21(1))
[ ] Has a screenshot of the moment of publication been archived?        (Law 6502 Art. 63(8))

If you want to tie this check into the general compliance audit of your site, use it together with the legal compliance checklist for online news sites; for how the advertising desk should appear in the imprint, you can draw on the imprint template. Separating your templates technically — defining a distinct content type and an automatic label field for advertorials — is the most durable route to this compliance.