The next attention-grabbing post you see in your Reddit feed might just be a paid 'free-form ad'.

Calling them “free-form ads,” Reddit said the new advertisements are its most native format ever, designed to look and feel like community content shared by real people.

The ads, meant to mimic the site’s megathreads, will enable advertisers to utilize a variety of formats in one post, including images, videos, and text.

According to numbers from Reddit, free-form ads got 28% more clicks than all other types of ads on the site and saw a jump in community engagement.

The next time you see an interesting post in your Reddit feed, take a closer look - because it might just be a paid advertisement.

  • denast@lemm.eeEnglish
    55·
    8 months ago

    Recently went on Reddit and laughed hysterically at the amount of religious propaganda I saw in this format. Example:

    1000009776

    • MaxPow3r11@lemmy.worldEnglish
      34·
      8 months ago

      -religious propaganda -gambling bullshit (including crypto/crypto adjacent bullshit) -military brainwashing/propaganda -alcohol ads

      Just the worst fucking garbage bullshit.

        • dumpsterlid@lemmy.worldEnglish
          62·
          8 months ago

          /r/atheism often got cyberbullied for being a bunch of insufferable jerks.

          I don’t believe in god but you would never find me any closer to hanging out in /r/atheism than any other actually religious subreddit.

          I mean, I guess I don’t want to judge that much because of how a subreddit like that can be a place for people living in extremely oppressive/conservative christian communities to express their anger at being in such a suffocating environment, but it often seemed like the criticisms of religion from the sub were more of the “but akshually this part of believing in god is dumb” instead of more along the lines of “who cares if god exists, y’all are incredibly hateful”.

    • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.mlEnglish
      15·
      8 months ago

      Ok if your ad uses TL;DR or any other internet speak, you deserve to go bankrupt. I’m so fucking sick of corporations trying to cash in on meme culture and trends and ruining it every single time.

    • andros_rex@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      8 months ago

      The best thing about those ads is that they’re mostly “AI” generated. You know none of the people making those ads would actually wash the feet of a queer person.