> the six partners have also been promised the Standard will carry “money-can’t-buy” positive news and “favourable” comment pieces that will appear to readers as routine, independently written editorial.
I agree that sounds like it would run afoul of the ASA
> positive news and “favourable” comment pieces that will appear to readers as routine, independently written editorial.
Also worth noting that the Evening Standard is apparently a free newspaper, similar to Metro New York, which doesn't exactly have high editorial standards.
But as the preceding paragraph in the story notes:
> An increasing number of British newspapers often carry “native advertising”, essentially paid-for commercials designed to look like independent editorial articles.
-- the point of "native advertising" is to appear to look like independent editorial. So it's still not clear that this "London 2020" is different than that. What would make it different is if there were more details about how this content would actually be published -- e.g. in the normal news section versus the special inserts, and/or via regular writers versus PR staff.
Looks to me like they've been a bit ambiguous with promises of earned media, which is a typical goal of conventional advertising campaigns.