If you woke up this morning and thought that the Delhi government’s warning issued to Anil Ambani over power cuts in the capital, or naming a flyover after Sikh general Baba Banda Singh Bahadur was important news, you’re among those who were successfully misled by the Aam Aadmi Party government.

Together with the help of marketing teams of various newspapers, AAP took advertorials to the next level.

There’s nothing new in governments of all hues, across states, placing ads that look like news reports. (These are called advertorials as opposed to straight ads that are more honest in their design and intent.) But we’ve got to give it to AAP for putting in tremendous effort towards making the distinction negligible.

The Indian Express, The Hindustan Times and Mumbai Mirror (yes, AAP funded an advertorial about Delhi in a Mumbai tabloid) carried two complete pages full of approximately 12 carefully curated “reports”. Apart from the difference in font, the ads disguised as reports – should we call them ad-reports? Or repads? – have headlines, pictures, datelines and blurbs,making them look similar to a regular city page and its articles. If you’re not a discerning reader, or miss the tiny disclaimer on top – for example, “Hindustan Times Media Marketing” or “Advertorial An Initiative by RED” – you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking journalists have nothing better to do than indulge in maudlin praise for the Delhi government.

The Indian Express’s news page is called ‘The City’, while AAP’s advertorial page is called ‘The Delhi City’. The headline and text fonts are different but they’re the same colour. In HT, the city page is called ‘HT Metro’ and while AAP’s advertorial page is not titled, it follows the HT aesthetic. Although the headline and text fonts are again different, AAP’s ad-reports follow HT’s style of adding a little colour in the headline.

Curiously, the Delhi government placed ads in Mumbai Mirror, a Mumbai-based daily rather than the Delhi edition of Times of India. Considering the fact that one of the articles is Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led government’s warning to Ambani, we can only assume the ad-report is AAP’s version of an open letter, but more on that later. In HT, the advertorial was carried across all city editions, including Ranchi, Bhopal and Patna. Ditto for IE, except for its Jaipur city edition.

The 12 reports present a nice mix of AAP’s key public communication strategies: high moral ground and victimhood. With an eye on the Punjab election, there’s an ad-report on naming a flyover in Delhi after Sardar Banda Singh Bahadur. Possibly for the sake of tradition, there’s an ad-report on Kejriwal government “warning” Ambani– we hope Anil Bhai reads Mumbai Mirror and is scared – over power cuts in Delhi. It states the power minister wrote a strongly-worded letter to Ambani, except this letter is dated June 14 and was reported by most news agencies, back when it was news. Clearly, it takes more than just paying the marketing team to get journalism right.

Considering we gave AAP grief for being holier-than-thou, let’s make it clear that ads and advertorials are a reality of journalism of scale. (Though, we at Newslaundry believe that can change with a little help from readers.) As things stand now, ads are the centre of the business model, which generates revenues to keep newspapers alive and pays journalists their monthly cheques. So, it’s understandable for papers like HT and IE to give continual space to marketing initiatives. What could improve, though, is their insistence on hiding the “advertorial” disclaimer from plain sight. A bigger point size could go a long way in respecting the reader.

Also, it is natural for governments to place ads in various media, indulge in some PR and talk about all the awesome things they do. But how much of this should be pure self-promotion at the cost of tax-payers’ money?

The Supreme Court makes it clear in its judgment that a government ad must aim to inform the public of its rights, entitlements and obligations. Governments using public money for ads is justified precisely because the end goal is to serve the public. In an ideal world. AAP’s advertorials fall remarkably short in this aspect.

Consider its ad-report on mohalla clinic. All it does it gloat over how the clinics are being appreciated by Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and everyone who matters in the world. If one was a reader in search of a mohalla clinic in Delhi, one would get zero information of value from the ad-report. It does not tell the reader which neighbourhoods one can could go to in Delhi for treatment in a mohalla clinic. Neither does it tell readers about the timings of these clinics or their locations — no specifics, no addresses, no phone numbers. Also, what if I have a complaint? It tells me nothing on my rights and entitlements pertaining to the mohalla clinic.

If the goal is mere self-promotion, the ads raise questions about whether such ads should be issued by governments using public money or political parties using party funds. What do you think? Let’s chat in the comment’s section.

The author can be contacted at manisha.pande1110@gmail.com and on Twitter @MnshaP