Since today is Dhanteras – the day when splurging reaches a whole new level in the country – it is only fair that the most widely-reached (and reaching) advertising platform of the country pulled off a festival-special trick.

We’re of course talking about Delhi Times (DT), The Times of India’s supplement (technically, but not really, since it’s thicker than the main copy), and an advertiser’s dream.

DT’s Dhanteras-special story was titled “Sonu Sood keeps his mother’s dream alive”, and was spread over two pages (Page 1 and 10). Sonu Sood, in case you’re too south-Delhi to watch his movies, is a Bollywood star who swings between doing A and B grade movies, depending on his stars.

So what was this “dream” of his mother’s that Sood has managed to keep alive? The first paragraph of the story has all the details:

“When Sonu’s mother passed away, their longstanding joint dream of renovating their family home in Punjab almost came to an end. Today, Sonu is one of the happiest actors around as he has finally fulfilled his commitment, and according to him, it’s all thanks to Godrej Interio’s Upload & Transform Season 3.”

The story goes on to explain how the “brand’s years of experience that transforms into expertise took over” to give the entire house a “grand new look”.  It also reveals how “the brand understood the thought process that went behind each idea and was able to decipher it into what the actor had in mind”. In totality, the word “Godrej” appears six times in the copy.

So, as is clear, this was DT carrying an advertorial for Godrej Interio – which happens to be a home furnishing line. And it is also obvious that DT did it with Sood’s permission. Bollywood’s not really known for its high ethical standards, but did Sonu actually use his dead mother to endorse a brand? Well, even if he did, in all fairness it’s his prerogative how he wants to earn his money and who he wants to use to do so. More importantly, the country would do without more moral policing.

But what about DT? Does it carry a disclosure in the copy that it was an advertisement paid for by Godrej? Not really. DT’s masthead does mention that it’s an “advertorial, entertainment and promotion feature” but there was no specific disclaimer in the story. Which is not really best practice since the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Paid News in its latest report clearly states that advertorials should carry the word “advertisement” in a different font from the rest of the text and should be distinct enough to “catch the reader’s attention immediately”.

Also, the web version of the story goes under the byline of “Times News Network”, and there is no way at all to tell (apart from common sense, of course) that it is an advertorial and not editorial content.

With Sood all set for a new release this Diwali, he must have been more than glad to feature in one of the most widely-read news supplement’s first page. After all, who’d mind being called “incredibly fit” in a front-page story.

Godrej must have been even gladder: a front-page story sure to touch an emotional chord with people and which, they would hope, would inspire many other people this Diwali to fulfill their mothers’ (dead or alive) dream with their help.

Delhi Times, on the other hand, did what it does best – passing off ads as news – while even managing to add an emotional family angle to go with the festivities. Happy Diwali, indeed.